Results / Open Wembley SC - 04/11/2012
RS200 End of Series Finale – Wembley Sailing Club, 4 November 2012
Rain of epic proportions caused many to stay in their pit last Sunday morning. Forecast was for the rain to stop about 11 am, and swing through 180˚ and fill significantly at about midday, which proved to be spot-on.
John Curran and Kevin Armstrong occupied the crease in the committee boat. Race 1 started at 11 in a light easterly. My spinnaker looking like a damp tramp’s sock, it died completely leaving the two lead boats (me and James Williams 1154) to the mercy of the fleet. Somehow, Andy and Jeraldine Peters and others ghosted through us both. RO decreed we go ashore and wait for the wind to shift and fill from the west. At 12.30 in it came, force 4-5 or so - YouTube footage here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfvWwD2w3YI&feature=youtu.be .... thanks to McKelvies Senior and Junior, even though the former just missed Ciaran and Mel in 633 mis-gybing …) Ian Sharp and Ellie Martin gave Andy and Jeraldine a fight for the lead, Steve Janering and Messy Cotter holding me and Alice off for 3rd. The start of Race 3 saw sundry shenanigans. These included Ian Sharp and me over the line for early showers and a pants scorecard, and some helms using their ‘earlids’ (invisible, soundproof flaps of skin that descend over a helm’s ears when conversing with the competition), leaving the race open for Stephen Janering and Miss Cotter to win from James Williams and Sarah Tuppen of Royal Harwich.
So the Peters won easily, as well as the overall series. As always, if you didn’t get a decent start you ended up having to find a lane by pointing higher than the Statue of Liberty, and going equally fast.
Julian Bradley
See Wembley SC website for full results