I arrived at 8.45 to find the parking spaces nearly full. They are a keen lot in the SW district. It was cold 3 degrees and damp and that remained a feature of the day.
In the end there were 24 boats entered which dropped to 23 before the start as one boat had electronic issues. The wind was down the lake from over the clubhous which meant there was wind at the leeward end of the lake and pretty quiet at the windward marks. The wind was shifting unpredictably but for most of the day the left hand side of the beat was the place to be to make gains.
At the Briefing with Peter Wiles, there was a vote on 1 or 2 fleets. I wanted 2 fleets as 23 boats on a start line with a short runway to the bank would be a recipe for chaos. Thankfully the vote was for 2.
In the first seeding race Tony Edwards took and early lead and dominated the race with Craig Richards a close second and Malcolm Stewart from Emsworth in my old Britpop in third.
In the second seeding race, I found myself in a useful last place at the first leeward mark sailing slowly which I assumed was caused by weed. Was this going to be another one of those days. Well, on the second beat I got all the shifts right and was back chasing for the lead which I established just after the second leeward mark and held to the finish, followed by Matt Moseley from Poole and Chris Hague also from Poole.
The rest of the day was all about consistency, which given the shifts was not easy. Going into the last race, Craig was on 10 points with me and Tony on 12. My strategy was to just win the race, there was no point even thinking about the opposition, just focus on the wind shifts. My tactics were to play the left hand side of the beat.
Tony got a shocker of a start and was seamingly out of it. I led around the windward mark and as usual rounded the spreader and was becalmed. The fleet piled in on the run and with them Tony who had sailed through to third. I hung on to the lead down the run and again up the beat. At the spreader mark the wind shut off for all and we drifted down the run. Again I just held onto the lead with a pile of boats close behind. I took the right hand gate to sail up the left hand side looking for the usual left hand port tack lift. Unfortunatley the wind died on my side and Tony and Craig powered up the right hand side in a puff making large gain and seemingly in front. They persisted with the right side all the way up the beat, hoping they would keep the breeze and be able to tack across Two thirds of the way up the beat the left side began to pay allowing me to cross both Tony and Craig and keep the rest of the fleet behind me. This was a race where I was proud of my ability to hang onto the lead when under intense pressure.
My thanks to Peter Wiles and his team who endured the cold to give us some great racing and the ladies in the kitchen who provided much needed hot drinks and home made cakes.
Whilst we were racing on this side of the pond the US Nationals were taking place on the other side in Corpus Christie. Conditions I understand were breezy and there is some footage on youtube of the final windy day
Results can be seen here
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