Another fabulous morning at Abbey Meads Lake! The forecast was for 24 to 30 mph from the south south-west, which is straight down the lake and gave perfect conditions for the DF 95 in B rig. The gusts probably reached this strength on occasion, but there were also lulls and holes in the wind which was incredibly variable, particularly near the windward mark. So much so that without moving your rudder you could make a perfect tack and keep going in a straight line!
The off wind legs were very exciting with great bursts of speed, spray, bows submerged, rudders in the air, broaches etc. A lot of concentration was also needed on the beat to avoid getting head to wind. This was tricky because the wind could vary 30° or more in an instant, leaving your sails shaking and no speed to get back on course. We each found a way of dealing with this and Martin fared best initially with 3 straight wins and then except for the last race every result was a podium place, as can be seen from the score sheet below.
It was good to see Simon Johnson sailing at Abbey Meads and getting a couple of 2nd places. Roger’s BOTTLE boat looked a bit scary with the cantilevered 6 mm diameter mast bending a lot and whilst this flexibility helps the windward trim by opening up slot between jib and main, the 24-year-old carbon arrow shaft mast gave up under the downwind pressure and snapped at the bottom where it comes through the deck. Roger didn’t mind rowing the rubber dinghy against the fresh breeze to rescue it, as he had of good practice going out laying and collecting the marks and on quite a few occasions rescuing several different boats that had ‘strayed’ into the bushes. One thing about today was amazing and that was there were no patches of weed, in fact no weed visible at all, except a few bits pulled up with the buoy weights. While there a couple of patches a fortnight ago the lack of weed today was remarkable and bodes well for sailing Marbleheads on Saturday, so long as we get enough entries!!
Roger is very pleased to report that David got home safely after his drive back to Herefordshire. He is a very dedicated model yachtsman & Guildford member who puts to shame those who are local who don’t support events such as this.
