Annandale open meeting
Annandale 17th 18th April
In gusty conditions but not the force 4 forecast only three boats
headed out to the starting line. Bernard Clark quickly took the lead
followed by Angus Beyts, Duncan Elder seemed to forget he was not in a
GP 14 and got tangled with them and was last to get away. Bernard soon
had a commanding lead and Angus decided to retire to make some
adjustments to the rig before the next race and the positions remained
unchanged. The first point’s race saw six boats out on the start line with the
wind now getting close to the forecast strength. Mark Simpson was first
round the first mark with Bernard close behind, Angus was third with
Brian Herring hard on his heels. Angus had high hope of moving up to
second when Bernard found his tiller extension didn’t work very well
when not attached to the tiller, but it was soon sorted and he set about
catching up with Mark. Mean while Angus got in a tangle at the leeward
mark and went for a swim, allowing Brian and the rest of the fleet
through. Mark managed to hold off Bernard to win with Brian in third
place. Lunch was had before the second race, but Angus spent the time
getting some more mast rake on. Tim Gatti had now turned up giving us 7
boats of 7 different designs. In the second race the DBs were away
quickly again with the wind rising up to the promised force 4, Mark was
first round the top mark with Bernard hot on his heels, Then came Brian,
Tim, Duncan and Angus, Angus was showing good off wind speed with his
newly raked back mast passing Duncan and Tim and looking set to pass
Brian as he chickened out at a gybe mark, only to discover the down side
of the extra rake as his head and a section of the boom tried to occupy
the same space. The resulting capsize saw the other boats go through.
The 360 that followed and accompanying swamping just after he had got
the boat dry was not due to him still being dazed, but the rudder
lifting up. Mark managed to hold off Bernard with Tim leading home the
AC boats in third place. With the sailing finished for the day Annandale once again showed
what brilliant hosts they are with a Scottish themed meal. A chose of
haggis, veggie haggis or fish pie, followed by a choice of delicious
puddings, washed down with copious amounts of wine, all included in the
entry fee of course, and if this wasn’t enough the malt whiskey was then
produced. Sunday dawned with freezing conditions and no wind, Angus blamed his
sore head on the blow from the boom the day before, and still no wind,
the postponement flag went up and still no wind, Howard Chadwick turned
up to ruin the symmetry of 7 boats and seven different designs as he
brought along a second design eight (trust him to ruin things).
Eventually it was decided to have lunch and see if things improved. After lunch, there seemed to be a slight whisper of a breeze and we
set off out, but as we started manoeuvring for the start the wind
(rather a grand term for something that would barely make a candle
flicker) changed again and there were further delays as the course was
changed which was as well for Howard who had attempted to shorten his
foils on an underground pipe which had he attended the briefing on
Saturday he would have been reminded about. The race eventually got away with Mark and Angus heading left and the
rest favouring the right hand side, the left seemed better initially,
but a wind shift favoured the rest of the fleet. Mark still managed to
get round the mark first and shot away to record his third straight win,
while the rest were left swapping places, and it was Tim who eventually
came out on top at the next mark after a long drift and as the wind
rapidly got up he held his place with John Hugo proving that he can
still sail when he gets on the water claiming third place. While the rest of us were preparing for the final race (One race being cancelled due to the endless postponements), Mark and Emma disappear ashore. Just before the start they reappeared but too late to make the start line, so it was Bernard’s chance to take an early start with Howard second and Angus hard behind. The wind had now risen to a steady force 3 and Mark started to charge through the fleet, but it wasn’t until the second beat when I heard the cry “Hi Anne-goose” that I realised that Mark had nipped ashore to swap crews and young Toby was in the front seat, an experience that he seemed to thoroughly enjoy.
Overall results
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