Last sail of the season

Rollesby Sailing Club open meeting was great fun even though there were only 4 Enterprises entered and one of them had gear failure and had to retire.

Jo and I set off at about 8am and arrived in good time, we quickly rigged the boat and got changed. It was quite breezy and gusty and I was a little apprehensive as racing on ponds can give rise to some wicked wind shifts and heavy gusts resulting in sudden baths!

I got a good start in the first race, in the middle of the short line and was first at the windward mark by some quirk of good fortune! I took the wrong line to the next mark and had to gybe losing out to the other two boats. However I did manage to stay with them and I soon got the hang of the gusts and clawed back into second place by the finish. The second race I was again 1st at the 1st mark and stayed in front all the way to the finish! I was now in equal first place! Oooh!

My start in the third race was a real mess and I was trailing third and had to work hard to get into second place, I got to the 2nd from last mark and tried to cut inside the leader and the mark as we rounded onto the wind. He slammed the door on me and I had the choice of hitting him, the mark or shooting the wrong side and having to tack and gybe round. I took the latter and had to tack around the stern on the third boat. (What a silly billy was I) This turned out to be the pivital mistake of the event for me and determined my finishing position.

So I now had one and a bit legs to catch up. I did and it looked like I just got back into second place as we finish with a split millisecond between us but in fact he just snuck into second (I didn't know this until the prize giving, both of us thought I had pipped him!).
Now I could do no better than finish second even if I won the last race and I thought with a 1st and 2 2nds I had alread done that but I was wrong.

By the time the last race started the wind had moderated a lot and I was having a lot of problem adjusting. I just couldn't get the boat going, our tacking turned to rubbish and we struggled to keep up. we finished 3rd and on equal points withe the other contender for second place and thus, because we had the same discard and he won the last race he took took second spot (and the bottle of wine) and we got third place.

It was very close racing against good sportsman on a lovely, if small, puddle on a lovely sunny day. Fantastic fun.

The sigificant lesson for was that I should not try to squeeze inbetween the mark and good sailor, it can only end in tears!
If I had hung back at the mark rounding and allowed the leadser to clear the mark I might well have managed to get past him to win the race but I would certainly have held my position and finished second overall. I just hope I can remember the lesson!

Here is the Rollesby sailing club report: http://www.rbsc.org.uk/default.asp?id=29&mnu=29

Now I have to pack the boat away for the winter and get on with the job of redecking PoppyCock!