Race Report: Autumn 3 - 13th September

Sailing Report – Autumn 3

By Sunday the sea and calmed down and the wind eased enough to present very pleasant sailing conditions to the 4 yachts taking part in the 3^rd race of the Autumn series. Icon made a typically fast start, establishing an early lead over Skywalker and Lady Hamilton. A reach out to the bell buoy gave the big boats a chance to stretch their legs and Icon pulled clear while Qantro overhauled the others to take second.

Spinnakers were launched for the leg to Sandsend by every except Lady Hamilton, who tried but couldn’t sort her lines out and so dropped back as she continued under white sail. At the front Icon was leading but Qantro wasn’t too far behind as they reached Sandsend, and a tricky spinnaker drop, rounding the mark with the boats on the point of jibing. The windward return leg started to spread the fleet out, Icon being a bit too quick for Qantro who was well clear of Skywalker who in turn had a good lead over Lady Hamilton.

The same course was followed for lap 2. This time Lady Hamilton was ready with her kite and so made better progress but Skywalker was going to be hard to catch. Icon was looking comfortable in her class too, Qantro still unable to make any impression on the leader despite making pretty swift progress herself. Indeed the leaders were making such good progress that a third lap was called for class A.

Class B finished at the end of lap 2 and Skywalker had held onto her lead for the win.  On the shorter 3^rd lap Icon decided not to risk her spinnaker while Qantro decided to take the chance to practice but could only close the gap slightly. Icon took the win, lapping Lady Hamilton who finished second in class B, Qantro being runner-up in Class A.

Result: Class A – 1^st Icon, Neil & Lorraine Williamson, 2^nd Qantro, Nathaniel Drake. Class B – 1^st Skywalker, Peter Brown, 2^nd Lady Hamilton, Malcolm & Joanna Stuart.

Race Report: Gazette Cup - 12th September

Sailing Report – Whitby Gazette Cup

Autumn gales have been disrupting the sailing recently, but the wind eased enough for 4 boats to head out to contest the Whitby Gazette Cup – all sporting well reefed sails. Course options were limited as some of the racing marks were lost during the storms, and the sea remained rather rough further out so a run close in to the Sandsend inner mark and a beat back was chosen.

The downwind leg proved tricky going, with no-one braving a spinnaker in the conditions, the boats were all rolling around struggling to hold their sails in the goose-wing position whilst being pushed around by the waves. Icon gradually pulled her way to the front, ahead of Cold Steel and Qantro with Lady Hamilton clinging on to the tail of the faster boats.

Approaching Sandsend a problem became clear. The inner Sandsend mark was no-where to be seen. While a GPS-guided Icon headed for its usual location, Qantro headed further in hoping to find it had been swept in, but to no avail. A back-up plan to go around a virtual mark at the GPS location was devised and so the fleet headed around and started a beat back to Whitby. With Icon still leading, Cold Steel decided to shake out her reef to try to catch up. Now heading into the waves the helmsmen had to work hard to keep the yachts powering forwards. Qantro found it particularly hard going and decided that 1 lap was enough for her.

For the second lap W mark off Upgang was used as the turning point. Icon had also now got full mainsail up and was holding Cold Steel at bay, Lady Hamilton was now on her own in 3^rd. The order remained unchanged for the rest of the race and so Icon claimed the cup.

Result: 1^st Icon, Neil & Lorraine Williamson, 2^nd Cold Steel, Dey, Jarvis and Gowland, 3^rd Lady Hamilton, Malcolm & Joanna Stuart