Hello Sailors
Before the race ramblings, another reminder of the not to be missed FF Open on 23/24 March….hopefully the Notice Of Race, Entry form (you can book in on line) and general information will appear on the club website this week. Those with eagle eyes will spot in the small print a change this year favouring Bewl boats. Whilst still requiring our visitors to be members of BIFFA, for Bewl boats this does not apply. This removes another excuse for not joining in the fun and hopefully will swell the number of boats on the start line. It is the first Open of the season and bearing in mind the time of year, tends to be relaxed and low key, a perfect opportunity to get in a couple of interesting days sailing and socialising and to give some momentum to your spring sailing.
Turning to yesterday`s race, I can report it was the coldest sailing experience I have had in a very long time, only exceeded by the coldness of my crew, Keith B`s, experience in the second race (more later). Paddy ( quite rightly committed to a race box start) set a cunning triangular course of W4NX, all to port in a NW Force 2. This gave us a satisfying long beat 4 to X and a running start to concentrate the mind. In the first race Geoff and Jim swept majestically off to the great blue yonder whilst the other three helms enjoyed a very close contest. In the end Keith and I squeezed a second place and I am not sure who prevailed between John M and Vic in their battle to the line . It was good to see Ken Ware turn out to crew for Vic again, hopefully, he will become infected with that FF stardust.
Not too sure what happened to the start of the second race, but in my boat we were deep in a very serious conversation about nothing very much, when we realised the fleet had started the race some minutes earlier without waiting for us. This gave us something to get our teeth into and whilst John and Vic concentrated on slowing each other up we made significant inroads into catching up. We were somewhat noisily congratulating ourselves on having closed the gap to get into contention, when Keith uttered the fatal words ….. “Careful! Pride comes before a fall”……
Shortly after on Paddys long beat I was encouraging Keith to lean out as far as possible, when he decided achieve this he would tuck his toes of only one foot under the toe strap, then followed by under no toe strap, followed by executing an artistic backwards roll over the side. Fortunately, he was following the old salts advice to always wind plenty of sheet turns round your hand, so he was dragged along very efficiently behind the boat. Whilst I was trying to recall Page 1 of the MOB drill, the boat solved the problem by tacking and with the sheets cleated proceeded to turn on its side . This allowed Keith to scramble over the side , the boat then righted itself and we sailed on to our well deserved, well spaced out, fourth place behind Geoff and Jim ,Vic and then John.
All great fun. Possibly more for the helm than the crew , roll on next weekend. See you there.
