RACE REPORTS
High Jinks on the
High Seas 15th
July 2001
I
tell you friends, dastardly forces are at work in the New Meadows. Forces that
can pick up a buoy that was only placed in the morning, change it’s color and
move it against the tide to an entirely different location. Forces that can tell
all the sailors in a race where this buoy has moved to except the guy that put
it in. Forces that can turn a flat calm into a 15 knot wind and stop supposedly
educated people being able to read.
A fine turn out of 9 boats arrived at or soon after 14.00 hours today for the
start of the second 2001 Brightwater/Wynburg race. There were some new boats out
for the first time this year, some old boats, some new faces in some old boats
and some old faces in some old boats but none older than Eric (Black hands)
Maslen who may not sleep at night after hatching a devious plot to confound the
most handsome and kind sailor on the River, Nick (That’s my buoy) Price and
his child bride crew, Wendy (My lips are smiling but my eyes are sad)
Price.
Things seemed normal at the start with the usual stragglers, today the Kelly
boys stepping in admirably to fill the absent Charlie (Is there a race today?)
Whiteheads shoes. Sailing Silky for the first time for time for nearly a year
Paul & Tom (Talented progeny of the old maestro Dick) Kelly recovered from a
late and slightly misguided start to finish a creditable fifth overall.
Pattie B ll led away after a good start and was comfortably ahead at the weather
mark with little foretaste of what was to come. The Indian went single file past
all the other boats in the fleet to round second just ahead of Carpe (Seize the
board) Plankum whose young crew were living up to the promise they had given us
a glimpse of last week. Unfortunately, not realising that it was a proper race
they stopped for a paddle half way round and never quite recovered after their
time at the beach. Sage was another boat that was slightly backward about
crossing the line but steadily made up for their disability to finish 1st
on Handicap ably sailed by Phil (If thy prop offends thee) Goiran.
Rink (I’m no grass) Dupont was with Gus (My eye ) Manomaitis and managed to
sail a canny race while keeping an eye (Gus’s?) on other transgressions. 3rd
place was their reward and overall lead of the championship at this early stage.
One of two solo sailors, Jim (It just won’t capsize) Loney was using the day
to fine tune the Bull Ship and check on the form of other sailors. Jim is too
old a hand to linger at the back of the fleet for long.
Meanwhile Pattie B ll set a blistering pace and was 4 minutes ahead after half a
lap and set off to “Scout” the coast by Rich Mans House for the orange buoy
that should have been there (indeed was there earlier in the day). After hours
of fruitless searching they rounded a lobster pot near the house and selflessly
set off to warn the other competitors of the missing buoy, deviating still
farther from the best course to try and warn their fellow competitors of the
lack of a mark. The others without exception seemed to be going out of their way
to avoid the hapless duo sailing
close hauled away from the supposed course in a concerted move which finally
brought home the awful realization that a sly and underhand plot had been
hatched in an effort to try and cheat the rightful winners of their deserved
glory. Eric (Two anchors) Maslen was later revealed to be the ring leader by the
black paint on his hands which seemed to match the colour of his heart. Teaching
his young crew to behave in such an underhand manner was not much of an example
for Chris (He made me do it) Kidger. Lets hope it doesn’t lead to a life of
grime.
Hired skipper Peter (Cut of your jib) Blachly sailed little Moonbeam to an
impressive 4th overall and 2nd on Handicap, earning his
employers a valuable 7 points to put Moonbeam just one off the lead after two
races. His sponsors, part of the fabulously talented Whitehead (Singing, flying,
sailing, but not reading) Dynasty went for glory in their other yacht the highly
regarded Indian having it’s first outing of the year and showing all it’s
old pace and skill on a beautiful day to cross the line first, holding off a
late challenge from the still reeling Pattie B ll.
Eleanor & Rollie (Quick eye) Johnson were determined to show us what could
be done with flag, stop watch and pen and the megabytes of data they collated
had this writers computer at melt down trying to assimilate the information.
A
fine, sunny days sail in a good 15 knot wind with a welcome respite from the
thunder of the preceding week.
|
Boat
|
Finish
|
Adjusted
|
H
Cap Pos
|
Points
|
Total
points
|
New
Handicap
|
|
Pattie B ll
|
3.14.00
|
3.14.00
|
8th
|
2
|
6
|
0
|
|
Sage
|
3.20.00
|
2.54.00
|
1st
|
9
|
9
|
-7
|
|
Indian
|
3.13.40
|
3.03.40
|
6th
|
4
|
4
|
-3
|
|
Carpe Diem
|
3.29.17
|
3.01.17
|
4th
|
6
|
8
|
-12
|
|
Catspaw
|
3.25.20
|
2.59.20
|
3rd
|
7
|
12
|
-10
|
|
Bull Ship
|
3.40.40
|
3.22.40
|
9th
|
1
|
1
|
-13
|
|
Scout
|
3.36.30
|
3.02.30
|
5th
|
5
|
6
|
-15
|
|
Moonbeam
|
3.21.40
|
2.57.40
|
2nd
|
8
|
11
|
-9
|
|
Silky
|
3.23.12
|
3.05.12
|
7th
|
3
|
3
|
-8
|
Brighwater / Wynburg race shock 8th
July 2001
On
a cool grey day 5 crews turned up for the first race of the 2001 season. Little
did they know of the drama that was to unfold when the race was turned on it’s
head later in the day. Pre-race
favourite Pattie B ll was looking confidant, (some said smug) during the build
up, cruising up and down, with an occasional break to pass advice to some of the
other crews who were working desperately to ready themselves for the off.
They struck out badly later in the race.
Carpe
Diem were fitting new battens to their O’Day racer a move which should have
paid off handsomely towards the end of the race apart from the aforementioned
shock. Lori (getting round any mark will be a bonus) Kidger and her experienced
young crew Christopher (Mars Bar? I don’t mind if I do.) only just made a late
start but improved throughout and will be a hard act to beat next time up at the
plate.
Celia
Harris, seen swinging hard in practise the day before, in gale force winds, had
brought an oversize hankie to fly on Moonbeam on the downwind leg, a trick that
hadn’t been tried since the legendary Dick Kelly flew one many years ago.
Whatever happened to him?
Moonbeam
was searching all the bases for that edge but couldn’t quite get to grips with
last years champion boat, Pattie B ll which lead the field off to the windward
mark as expected.
The wily
Dupont crew of Rink & Callie had Dogspaw moving deceptively fast and Lucy
the Lawyer saw that their campaign would start with a bangrk.
Eric, (new
boat this year?) Maslen was out with a huge crew (I tell you Scott is enormous)
was looking for a big hit and strong winds but was sadly disappointed by the
light airs that persisted throughout the race. Pattie B ll led
comfortably across the line followed by Moonbeam, Catspaw, and Carpe Diem, with
Scout finishing off proceedings. You think the race was over? Not a bit of it.
When crews gathered at the de-briefing it was revealed that Lucy the Lawyer had
pointed out to her crew in the locker room, don’t ask me how, that all the
other crews had misread the sailing instructions (even the clot that wrote them)
and were all bumped a place putting Catspaw at the top of the litter.
!st Catspaw
5 points 4th
Carpe Diem 2 points
2nd Pattie B ll
4 points 5th
Scout
1 point
3rd Moonbeam
3 points
HOME
Local
links News Committees
Race reports 2003 Race reports
2002 Race reports 2001 1999
Boats Boats
2001 Photos Photos
02 Photos 03