Pwllheli Sailing Club Winter Series - Overall
by Vicky Cox 14 Dec 2022 18:38 GMT
26-27 November 2022
As crews gathered on the pontoons in Pwllheli for the last weekend of the winter series, also the last weekend of the Pwllheli challenge series, a hail and snow storm greeted them. Everyone was in the Christmas spirit and looking forward to a sail in the fresh crisp air. The ice was cleared from the decks, and with Santa hats and plenty of thermals donned, the fleet headed out to the start.
With racing marks out for the winter, Pwllheli Sailing Club's new commodore, Mark Thompson had kindly laid a couple of inflatables in position of marks 2 and 3 which, together with the Fairway buoy and the outfall buoy (mark 0), gave race officer Robin Evans something to work with for the round the cans race. With 7-12kts from the west, Robin left it as a simple two lap race around all the marks to port.
There was much luffing up and stalling out at the start but in the end everyone got away cleanly, Peter Dunlop and Victoria Cox's J109 Mojito in the lead, very closely followed by Paul Kitteringham's Elan 350 Finally but Nigel Ingram's Farr 30, Wild Haggis was forced to retire early after issues with their mainsail.
The fleet headed along the snow covered beach and after a couple of timely tacks in the shifting winds, Mojito gained a clear lead towards mark 2. Down to the Fairway buoy from mark no 3 and kites were flying as the fleet passed the 29ers that were training in the bay. Mojito were making good progress towards the Fairway buoy until the wind shut off leaving Finally to close in on them. With wind completely shutting off at the finish, Robin decided to call a shortened course and everyone headed to the finish line. Mojito took 1st and celebrated with festive cup cakes and mince pies, while Finally had to settle for second place overall.
Day two and with winds shifting round to a northerly or north-easterly 5kts, it was quite obviously colder out in the bay but the added snow on the Snowdonia range made for a picturesque backdrop for any photos.
Robin set an adventurous two lap course heading out of the start line to the fairway buoy but almost as soon as the warning signal went, it was obvious that the wind was dying. Both Mojito and Finally struggled to cross the start line but realising that the wind was shifting round, Mojito hoisted their A2 and started to pull away. Closer to the mark the wind started to return to a north north-easterly so Mojito went back to the jib and just managed to luff up to round the mark. Once round and they were able to capitalise on their lead finishing a comfortable 5 minutes ahead.
Despite their two second places, because Finally haven't missed any of the winter series races, they won the series overall and celebrated with warning mugs of mulled wine. With sufficient discards, despite missing a couple of the racing weekends in the series, Mojito won the Autumn series and, also won the Pwllheli challenge series overall.
That concludes the scheduled racing for 2022 but many of the skippers keep in touch and if weather permits, may well be out on the water for some informal racing over the Christmas period. Feel free to get in touch if you fancy joining the fleet or joining a boat as crew. No experience is necessary, just an enthusiasm for being out in the water.
Full results and the racing schedule can be found at pwllhelisailingclub.co.uk