Sunday’s Race 2 – The Return to Discovery Bay
Bullets that had rocked the boats much of the night had eased by the 0930 skippers briefing, as had the forecast – down from F6-7 to a warm and fuzzy ENE F4-5. Actual winds at Waglan Island were only 10-15 kts.
Plans of switching Epic to a ‘stiffer’ handicap were thus shelved, although small PN modifications were made to a few boats to level the playing field after Race 1. See DBYC SRI 8.2 which requires that “such inter-race adjustment shall not be of a magnitude that would have altered the previous race’s finishing order, or normally be greater than 1% of the existing handicap”. Thus were set the start times for the return race, with Koala leading the way at 1030 and Wizard last off at 1144 hrs. The chase was on!
The NE’ly allowed a fine reach to the first mark, Chesterman Rock, so the first decision at the start was whether to sail inside or outside Brown Island. Many chose inside (wrong!), not realising that the start line had been laid further South than expected. They paid for that error with flukey winds and extra track miles.
Meanwhile, lead boat Koala (45 years old, if a day) rounded Chesterman then discovered a foot of water over the floorboards, dropped sail and motored straight back to Middle Island, shepherded by Eric Lloyd on the safety boat. Dry caulking, apparently – that bane of the modern racing sailor…
As the boats approached Chesterman, it became apparent that conditions were freshening. The reported 11-15 kts was now 15-20, frequently over, with a nice long swell developing in the open water to the East of Lamma. A couple of boats prepared for spinnaker hoists, then thought better of it. In the end only Wizard set the 1½ oz to rocket along at 10½ kts. Other boats didn’t need to. Epic, a 47 ft ketch, had plenty of sail area to push her up to hull speed and keep her there. At the other end of the scale, little Shockwave and Skellum didn’t need spinnakers either, to get up on the swell and surf.
Which explains why, in the polluted 3 km viz, boats only caught sight of each other approaching Cheung Chau – all boats were rounding the course at top speed, but closing only slowly on the boats ahead. The anticipated 3½ hour race was about to take 2½ , so the back-markers never stood a chance. Epic finished after only 2 hrs 37 mins (an average speed of about 7 kts), Shockwave just behind, then sat back to wait for the rest of the fleet, only just heaving into view.
In the middle of the fleet, Soko and Xakanaxa had a long running battle. Soko sailed south of Round Island and had caught Xakanaxa by the Chesterman mark. From Chesterman to Cheung Chau rock the gap between the boats was never more than about 2 boat lengths, with Xakanaxa just regaining her lead. Meanwhile Thea and Shindig battled it out south of Lamma, neither one managing a clean break. The race to the finish line had all five in procession, trying to squeeze that extra bit of speed out of their sails to catch Rosemary, just ahead. Only Thea managed it, passing with an exciting close-quarters broach – we await the photos from the finish boat with interest!
After probably the fastest ever passage race in DBYC history, the early finish allowed a long relaxed picnic and prize-giving on the marina headland, and, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, there were plenty of prizes for all. Here are the results for Race 2…
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Unfortunately, the initial results turned out to be a tad ‘provisional’ - always a risk, holding the prize-giving on the day. A statistical check of the Race 1 numbers later flagged up an error which knocked Shockwave from 5th place to 6th. The top overall placings being so tight, this tiny adjustment in the points total resulted in joint first and joint third places, with all top four boats separated by only ¾ of a point and each pair with identical points make-up. Now that’s tight!
The Race Committee consulted with the skippers and agreed the best solution – split the final positions by comparing the winning margins in corrected times for each race. The boat with the highest margin would be given the edge. Nit-picking, really - all four boats did extremely well, only separated by a hair. Perhaps a joint crew celebration is in order? And so to the overall results…
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This clinches it for Epic. Always somewhat schizophrenic, with an entirely different character in light and heavy airs, she is now going to be awarded two distinct handicaps for those conditions. In that way, the Handicapping Committee hopes to be able to rein her back in a breeze, whilst still allowing her 20-odd tonnes to race in the more normal F2-3. Fair?
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Our thanks, once again to the Race Committee (including ’social sec’, Michelle Flavel and Treasurer, Nigel Easterbrook, also Bevin Brakespeare, Ian Cusack and crew aboard Committee Boat Outsider, and Eric Lloyd and crew aboard Sunday’s safety boat) for all their efforts organising and running this new regatta. Not to mention Webmaster, Alain Bedard for stitching all this together. Our appreciation, also, to our hosts at ABC and DBMC and to our many sponsors, listed below, for their generous support of the event.
The DBYC Middle Island Regatta was sponsored by: Discovery Bay Marina Club, McSorley’s, Hemmingways, Pizza Express, Jaspas, Cafe de Paris, Fragrant Harbour magazine, Pizza Express, The Beer Bay, Pen & Paper, The Blue Room, Private Label, and (last, but by no means least) committee members Michelle Flavel and Nigel Easterbrook. Our thanks to you all.
Our Sponsors:
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Remember this - the primary consideration at the start hinges on where you want to be 30 seconds after the gun. Heading in the right direction hopefully, towards the next header perhaps, but first and foremost IN CLEAR AIR. Anything else and you will be slow, headed and trapped.
In certain conditions, the only way you can assure clear air is with a port-tack start. Unless, that is, you have a significant performance advantage and/or can guarantee a perfect start at the front of the pack.
The MIR Race 1 start was a prime opportunity to employ a port-tack start. Pin-end favoured, but left side of the course limited by the Lantau coast, a persistent veering shift likely before the windward mark and a (supposedly) inexperienced fleet which could be expected to be late on the line and more likely to go for the traditional committee boat end. Only draw-back… a tight, 200 m line.
First aim: get your timing right and cross the line at full speed. Second: be prepared to duck as required and look for suitable gaps to penetrate the trail of starboard-tackers. The point being, a well executed duck loses very little ‘height’ and far outweighs the disadvantages of tacking into all that crappy air. So ease early, be ready to dump that main (in case you run out of rudder) and have the sails coming in as you take the lift through the starboard-tacker’s wake.
Sometimes it will be tight. Make your decision early, well before your bow crosses the path of your starboard-tacker, then stick with it. Remember, the starboard-tacker doesn’t want you to tack on his bow - it puts him in even dirtier air! If there is little in it, he will just ease by a few degrees, maybe call “You cross!” and give you a dirty look on his way past. Alternatively, he might call “Starboard!” and protest you (probably will if it’s a gross, very obvious infringement), in which case take your punishment (2 x 360) and learn your lesson for next time.
Rosemary and Wizard both went for pin-end, port-tack starts on Saturday, but the (supposedly) inexperienced fleet were all over them like a cheap suit. One had to tack back, the other just squeezed through to obvious advantage. Not one protest call was made, just the odd grumble later. Perhaps there’s another tip to finish with - have that red flag ready and then use it, if you feel the need!
