Queen Mary Sailing Club Spring Series Week 3
by Tony Woods 25 Mar 08:50 PDT
17 March 2024
19 ILCAs turned out for the third week of the QM Spring Series and were greeted with a chilly, shifty, gusty westerly (300° average) wind, ranging from 7-24 knts according to the QM Live Wind! Chilled Champagne sailing!
Race One
The fleet got away first time with Neil Peters (aka Stick Daring) looking good towards the port end of the line. He tacked off early but the boats that carried on further left - namely Tony Woods, and Mark Sanken (in an Ilca 6) came off best. 50° shifts seemed to be frequent, combined with huge pressure differences, particularly as we approached the windward mark under the lee of the dredger. Sometimes it was necessary to deliberately drop the sheet in order to keep the boat flat and moving forward.
Tony was being chased down the run by Chris Ellyatt and on the next beat Tony initially made sure he stayed between Chris and the windward mark. Guy however saw breeze and a big shift on the right and headed that way overtaking both, and Orlando also now got in the mix. On the first reach it was Guy closely followed by Tony and Orlando. Tony managed to overtake Guy to windward but then threw it all away at the gybe mark by doing the classic IILCA schoolboy error - getting the mainsheet caught round the transom! This allowed Guy and Orlando through. However on the next shifty beat Tony managed to pull ahead of the other two, and these three then battled it out to the end, finishing Tony 1st, Guy 2nd, Orlando 3rd. (I had lots, though not max kicker, max Cunningham, and a bit of curve in the outhaul - not bar tight.)
Race Two
This was a different story! David Casale tried to emulate Robert Scheidt in the 96 Olympics by encouraging the fleet to start early so we all came back for the recall - all but Stick who didn't realise on a recall we have to start after the handicap fleet...
We got away cleanly second time and Orlando now found his groove, rounded first and sailed serenely on into the distance. Meanwhile the rest of us floundered around - there was a massive pile up at the first mark. I think two boats were coming in on port, which is already pretty dangerous with the rest of the tightly packed fleet coming in on starboard. Then the first starboard tacker got headed and didn't make it round so tacked into the fleet. Carnage ensued. I'm not sure if anyone did turns? I think one boat retired?
The breeze then went left on the second beat and therefore those on the left gained - Orlando was now well ahead but Stick pulled up into the chasing group of David Surkov, Chris Ellyatt and Guy Noble, with Tony Woods not far behind.
These five had a good tussle with Guy getting past David S on the penultimate reach then Chris eventually getting the better of Guy and David, and so it continued until the final reach to the finish. In the first race Orlando had tried to reach low but this hadn't paid off. Confident that the same move wouldn't work for Tony, Guy concentrated on trying to get past Chris. Tony took a couple of big gusts to snick through to lee, much to Tony's glee, and to their annoyance! So in the end it was Orlando 1, Tony 2, Chris 3 and Guy 4.
Coaching points - if it's super shifty, give yourself a bit more space if you can - over-stand a little.
If you mess it up and can't lay the mark you have to go the wrong side of the mark, gybe round and go behind everybody. If you tack onto port into the oncoming fleet you may damage lots of boats including your own and will ruin everybody's race. This is what happened. Fortunately the Ilca is a very robust little boat - bullet proof I have heard it described!
Results can be found here.