An enticing sunny morning was the setting for the YCW Shambles race(inc WSC Crumblehome Cup and RDYC Shambles Race). A light 7kts from the SW. After some good work from skippers and crews in the bar 8 boats made it out to the start line. With a forecast of sun and an increasing breeze throughout the day, I for one was looking forward to the race to come.
A short beat and a run were set before starting the 8 mile beat out to The Shambles. Arcsine and Draig O' Mor found the best pressure up the first beat to the harbour wall, Arcsine rounding 1st followed by Draig and Wildfire.
Very often in a yacht race it is advantageous to be the lead boat, sailing in clear wind and water. The downside is you show all of those behind you the best way to go. Around the de-gauzing buoys Arcsine's tactician decided to sail them straight into a 'hole'(def: a place of no wind alt: somewhere you generally don't want to be in a yacht race). Draig looked to try and avoid it but they too got stuck and proceeded to try different sail combinations to sail out of it. Wildfire took the decision not to follow and tacked away to the breakwater and found good pressure all the way along the Portland coast. The following fleet found the breeze filling back in were able to follow without tacking. Farr Out and Wahinee Waves benefiting greatly from the situation.
2 miles off the Shambles Cardinal Arcsine crossed just behind Draig and just infront of Farr Out. With the following fleet not far behind. Wildfire though were in a commanding position, but with the breeze drifting right(lifting the boats below up to the mark) and a greedy(I say cautious) tactician, ended up overstanding the mark by about half a mile and were seen to be hoisting the spinnaker to get the windward mark. Arcsine rounded first followed by Wildfire then Draig, the first 3 boats rounding within a minute or so of each other. Setting off for Ringstead on a lovely spinnaker reach in 10kts.
One of the cruelties of racing in tidal conditions is that a minor misjudgement or just plain circumstances can punish you harshly. With the tide increasing in velocity at the Shambles from the time the first boat went around everyone else had to suffer the last part of their beat in adverse tide of up to 5kts. Swenn unfortunately suffering a fate that many before and many more will go through, reaching the Shambles buoy and spending 20 minutes fighting to get around it. This is usually compounded by the fact that the boats that have rounded are sailing off in the other direction with profitable tide.
Approaching Ringstead the whole fleet was spread out, Persephone(a Hawk 20) could still be seen beating up to the Shambles(a lovely day for it); Arcsine extending their lead and the red and white chequered spinnaker of Farr Out could still be seen stalking the leaders from a distance.
After rounding Ringstead a beat into the corner of Portland harbour and a run back into the bay. After rounding Ringstead it is rumoured that, the double handed, Farr Out opened up their flask of chilled apple juice, which might explain why they lost their way in Portland Harbour trying to find W.
Arcsine took line honours followed by Wildfire and Draig O' Mor. Wahinee waves pipped Farr Out across the line and Buckshot following shortly after. Dave Knight, single handed, on Wizard was the last finisher finding us in the club afterwards with a big smile having had a great days sailing.
A big thanks to all the race committee(Iain, Celia and Adam) for a great course and organising the excellent weather. Well done to all the competitors and full results can be found on the website.
Remember that Weymouth Regatta entries are now open www.weymouthregatta.co.uk
Nick
Submitted on 18th May 2012