Brian Jeffs combined all these variables beautifully as he and Scott Bamford started at full speed on port tack after ducking behind a starboard Uncle Al near the pin end. Not so lucky was Scott Town who had to tack to avoid Al and hit the pin. While Scott was doing his 360º, most of the others tacked and set off in pursuit of the leaders, Brian J. and Scott B. The latter had a big lead for a while but should have remembered the Stuart Walker dictum “Cross ‘em when you can!”. Particularly in this situation where, once past the Race Hut on the cliff, boats usually get lifted towards #4 on port tack with this wind direction. By the time Brian finally tacked in towards #4 (which had been moved almost ¼ mile closer to the start line than normal!!), he was only a couple of lengths in front of Uncle Al. The mess near the beach and its intermittent wind shadow was made worse by the fact that we arrived there at the same time as half a dozen Dart catamarans who had gone to the old mark 4 location first! The buoys to starboard rounding added further excitement to an already tense situation. Uncle Al appeared to be in good shape as he approached on starboard tack about four lengths to leeward of the mark. After dodging a couple of marginally controlled Darts, Al tacked but into a lull. Suddenly, Peter Rahn came rushing in along the starboard tack lay line in a juicy gust! Would he be able to starboard the slowly moving SHADES? No! Just in time Al managed to tuck in to windward of Marjorie Innes and her Dart who were stalled at the mark on port. Peter would now have to go through two hulls to get Uncle Al! Actually, Peter very cleverly tacked into the Wayfarer-sized space between Marjorie and #4, and might have come out of the whole mess with the lead had it not been for Marjorie getting a slight puff which moved her Dart forward just enough to take Peter’s wind. With mark 4 so far south, the anticipated spi reach from 4 to 6 turned into a very close fetch which was not much fun for anyone – unless you count Uncle Al who was able to sit on Peter all down this relatively brief leg. Brian Jeffs, Bob Kennedy, Scott Town and Roger Shepherd were all part of a very closely bunched group that drifted around the mark just after Peter and Al. Both Al and Peter headed high after the gybe – in Al’s case because past experience has shown that when the wind blows across the shore, it lifts to get up over the land and leaves less wind near shore (usually!!!) The 3 photos below (courtesy of RC Chairman, Rick Goldt) show that second reach, from 6 to 1 quite well:
The trick on the short beat from #1 up to A under the cliff was to play the shifts and puffs for as long a possible while staying far enough from the cliff to avoid as much of its wind shadow as possible. Al was just about to congratulate himself on having stayed between his nearest opponents (Peter and Brian) and the mark as he tacked to port to round mark A. Just after the tack, there was a loud gurgling sound off the starboard bow, and who should appear on starboard but Bob Kennedy and Steve Carroll. These two had tacked right around mark 1 onto port, banged the right corner of the beat and were now in the lead after forcing Al to tack back to starboard. Well, when you’re hot, you’re, as they say! Bob carried his puff right into the mark, tacked around, Steve put up the chute and they were off in their own puff. A couple of boatlengths behind, Al was fortunate to get just the last part of Bob’s puff to move out of the cliff’s shadow. No such luck for poor Peter and Brian who sat becalmed for several minutes right after getting around the mark. Bob and Steve rounded onto the final beat to the finish at #4 with a good 100 yards of lead over Al who in turn was a comfortable 2nd. But the leaders were not out of the woods yet as a puff from the dam propelled Al into a windward overlap by the time the leaders neared mark A. When Bob began to luff, Al took one look at the Lasers totally becalmed under the Race Hut and decided to try his luck to leeward rather than to risk losing the whole fleet behind while he sat under the cliff. Al had just nicely gotten into clear air to leeward when the breeze filled in from the general direction of #4, reaching Bob first. Apart from the occasional hiccup, it turned out to be a fairly steady breeze and Bob Kennedy romped off to his first victory in a big Wayfarer race! Congratulations, Bob (and Steve!) Peter Rahn, meanwhile, did it just right, staying well off the cliff early and then pinching up to eat up almost all of Al’s 2nd-place edge before having to settle for a close 3rd behind Al. Early leaders, Brian and Scott, had to settle for a 4th while Jens and Sharon Biskaborn, always fast on fanshawe, rounded out the top five. |
