Miracle Open at Teesdale Sailing Club

The day dawned bright and sunny with a force 1-2 wind blowing unusually from the north-east. For those who know Grassholme this meant that the wind was coming over the dam wall and mark one would be a bit flukey and the approach to it would need judging well. However before any sailing was to be done the pre race briefing and bacon butty breakfast had to be completed. The pre race briefing was mercifully very quick (as no visiting sailors had turned up) and so we spent a bit more time on the bacon butties. Considering the small field and the fact that two of the home boats did not have spinnakers rigged it was decided to sail the event without them as this would make for closer competition.

Race One
Richard Hewitt crewed by Chris McCarty started by running down the line on starboard whilst the remainder of the field opted for a port tack start. After spilling wind frantically by the IDM Hewitt forced the other boats to give way and contrived to arrive near the ODM as the gun sounded. He was able to tack on top of the others, take their wind and get control of the short beat to the windward mark. Paul Davison crewed by John Liggett and Rob Johnson chased hard down the reach to no 9 and closed up on the run to the downwind mark but were unable to get through. On the beat at the end of the first lap Johnson and Keith Martin came together when there was a ‘misunderstanding’ on the right of way rules. The positions remained unchanged on the final laps.

An excellent hot lunch prepared by Heather McCarty was taken at the end of this race.

Race Two
Hewitt tried the same ploy on the start as he had on race one but this time the port starters timed it better and sailed through him on the line with Davison establishing a lead ahead of Martin. Johnson judged the approach the windward mark better than Hewitt and squeezed through in to third. The boats stayed in that order to the beat where Hewitt initially pulled back two places before throwing them away again by tacking to round the windward mark too early. Hewitt once again sailed well up the beat, but with a shortened course was unable to get up with Davison who won comfortably.

Race Three
The wind veered a little at the start of this race and Hewitt started on starboard at the IDM whilst the remainder opted to stay with a port hand start. Hewitt was able to get a good lead to the windward mark and he extended it on the reach. Although Davison, Martin and Johnson were all together, and presented a large sail area they were not able to get close enough on the run to slow Hewitt and he managed to maintain his lead around the course though Davison was closing on the final lap.

At the end we all agreed that we had had a good day’s racing, but where were you all?

Overall Results: