Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailing Club

Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailability © Marion Edwards

Hykeham Sailing Club and Hykeham Sailability held their first ever Challenger Open during the weekend 12-13 April. Hykeham SC sails on Apex Lake which is very prettily surrounded by trees which the sailors were to find posed their own challenges.

The fleet was small with seven Challengers. Two of these were local boats. Four made the short journey from Rutland and one made a long journey from Surrey. Local sailor, Mike Seal (309) was taking part in his first Challenger event and, although new to the Challenger, he is far from a novice as he still sails his Solo in lighter winds.

At Saturday's briefing the Race Officer, Sam Davy, explained the inverted P course with a running finish (designed to make things easier for Sunday when the Challengers would be sharing the course with the club racing).

The fleet was launched in a south easterly wind and soon discovered that the wind bent round the island in an "interesting" way. Fortunately the island was nowhere near the course. The sailors headed to the eastern end of the lake where they began to learn about the trees which would turn the wind on and off at random and cause it to constantly shift around.

There were big gains and losses to be made. Luck and the ability to capitalise on that luck was important. The general agreement was that the windward mark was awful and there was no reliable way to reach it.

Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailability - photo © Marion Edwards

There was a certain amount of confusion around the start of the first race. Someone was over and Alex Hovden (304) thought it was him so he went back only to find at the end of the race that he wasn't the offender. It was Val Millward (312) but as she also went back no one was recorded OCS. Graham Hall (270) tacked on a wind shift on the first beat and was lifted to the mark. He held the lead to the finish. Nick Bett (261) was second and after her poor start Val clawed her way up to third.

Just before the start of the second race the safety boat was seen escorting Dave Hodson back to shore as his mainsheet block had come adrift. Dave may have been using sail 212 but he was actually sailing 139 which he had just bought and was refurbishing. This was a first outing so teething troubles were to be expected. Fortunately it was nothing that couldn't be fixed with his tools and spares (he had come prepared).

Alex won the second race on the first beat. He found a gust which took him to and round the windward mark. There was a slight contretemps between Nick and Graham which resulted in Nick doing a penalty turn and Daisy needing some tape on her sponson.

The fleet returned to shore for lunch which was excellent and very modestly priced: filled rolls and homemade soup.

Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailability - photo © Marion Edwards

Race 3 started with Alex building on his race 2 success, but by the end he had to settle for third as he was overhauled by Val, who took the win and Graham.

In Race 4 Nick reached the windward mark first and despite surrendering the lead briefly to Graham on lap 2, held on to take the win. Alan Bradley (160) was in fourth place for much of the race but unfortunately his centreboard became jammed partway up making the beat even more difficult than it would otherwise have been and he fell back to sixth.

So Saturday ended with four races and (unusually for the Challenger) four race winners. Graham had a two point lead over Nick and Val (separated on countback) with Alex a single point behind. Graham claimed a top speed of 9.5kts. Val trumped this on Sunday morning by saying she had recorded 68kts... this is what happens when the Garmin is not turned off before the journey home...

Dave was at great pains to point out that after his refurb of 139 there were no leaks (he has form on this one!).

By Sunday morning the wind had swung westerly and the course was moved to the western half of the lake. This meant that launch and recovery took place on a sheltered leeshore but with plenty of competent volunteers it wasn't a problem. The course remained an inverted P with an extra mark(!). The start/finish line was placed conventionally part way up the beat.

The plan was for the Challengers to do two back to back races and in the first they would be joined by the club racers (with the Challengers starting first). This worked well apart from the poor Laser sailor who, when approaching the windward mark, found herself threatened by three points of a Challenger (Alex) and did an understandable, but probably unnecessary, tack to avoid him!

Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailability - photo © Marion Edwards

At the start of Race 5 Val and Graham had the prime spot by the committee boat when they were both pushed head to wind by a shift. Graham recovered before the start but Val did not. Alex and Dave led for much of the first lap with Graham overtaking Dave on the short reach to the leeward mark and Alex on the next beat. Graham held the lead to the finish (giving him the event win).

Alan Bradley (160) did his best to throw away sixth by missing the final mark of the last lap and heading direct to the finish. The race officer kindly pointed out the error of his ways and he was able to turn back to round the mark without loss of position.

Race 6 saw Graham have some luck on the first beat. He and Val had split tacks and he was convinced that Val was going to cross him on full power only for her to fall into a hole and come to an abrupt halt. Graham managed to hold on to take the win, though Nick was chasing hard.

So Graham took the overall win with Nick second. Alex and Val were equal on points and equal on countback so could only be separated by position in the last race which gave third to Alex.

The prize-giving was presided over by Commodore, and Race Officer, Sam Davy who thanked all the volunteers from the club who contributed to making the event such a success, especially Irene Parsons and Geoff Woodthorpe of Hykeham Sailability. This was echoed by event winner, Graham, and endorsed by all visiting sailors and shore crew.

Challenger open meeting at Hykeham Sailability - photo © Marion Edwards

Overall Results: