(Report from Arke.)
After the glorious spring it was hard to believe, given the weather, that June had arrived. But it was good sailing weather with a minimum of 10-15 or so knots from the WNWish. And gusts that were quite a bit stronger and a bit of chop! Six boats rigged and headed for the start. After some chat, Dione volunteered to be Race Officer (RO) and after some further chat, plumped for the classic NW wind L8 course: a good beat to D followed by some reach-y legs to G and then back to the start at Blairvadach. A second lap would be a simple ‘sausage’ course to D and back.
Arke led in with a well timed start. Catriona turned under Arke – possibly looking for revenge for Arke’s ‘hook’ last week!? But Arke just had enough speed to get clear ahead and hit the favoured shore end of the line on the gun before tacking out. Catriona tacking below. All headed out across the loch. Catriona had to make an unfortunate duck of the annoyingly placed moored yacht. And Dione slowly fell in to Catriona’s air and tacked away up the loch.
Arke tacked up the middle of the loch thinking to stay in good wind. The rest stood on a bit further towards the Shandon shore. Dione tacked back across towards it too – passing behind Arke. After a good while of sailing up the loch Arke tacked towards the shore to better cover the others and make some ground left towards the mark. She easily crossed Ceres and then Dione and made a slightly late and poor covering tack which let Dione get ahead but below. But not enough for Dione to be able to tack left to the mark. Arke thought to sail Dione to somewhere just above the lay-line; reckoning too that it often pays to be a bit conservative with the lay-line given shifts on the Gareloch shore! Arke tacked away as a quietly as she could. And realised she had over-stood more than she thought given Ceres (going very well this season indeed!) and Catriona were nearly laying it from well below. And was therefore surprised to see Dione continue to blithely sail north up the loch. Clearly someone else was too given a radio message querying the course! That had the effect of alerting poor Dione to her error. All the more funny/irritating (depending on perspective) given Dione was the RO who had set the course!
Ceres, followed by Catriona, rounded D first – taking advantage of Arke’s railroading of Dione and even more so Dione’s navigational error. Arke followed with Dione behind having limited the damage. Halcyone followed in not too far behind. Followed by Athene, not quite on the form from the week before.
A slightly reachy leg across to G and tactics varied: Ceres out in front stuck to white sails and concentrated on sailing fast in the strong wing. Catriona followed but put up her spinnaker (single-handed too!). Arke went a bit higher – thinking to be able to bear away once they too put the spinnaker up. In the end Ceres probably made the right call and the spinny probably didn’t really pay. And when Arke’s spinnaker halyard slipped it was an annoying faff recovering the spinnaker and sorting lines. It didn’t slow them much however. Unlike Dione – whose day was not going well – who managed to somehow rig their spinnaker lines through their spinnaker bucket. After launching the spinnaker the bucket was also launched along one of the sheets, where it dragged along in the water acting – in the words of Dione’s crew – as a very effective sea anchor!
Ceres rounded first, followed by Catriona, followed by Arke. All maybe 5 boat-lengths apart. Time for another round. So another cracking beat up to D again. Not much changed, good sailing all round in the now strong gusty conditions with Ceres covering Catriona and Arke. Dione following, with Halcyone and then Athene. Round D and a run back to the finish (probably – assuming we were over an hour!).
Ceres reckoned that flying a kite hadn’t paid on the first round and stuck with white sails only. But this time – on a more downwind run – it was the wrong tactic. Arke went high again while rigging (a bit slow given the need to sort rigging from the earlier fiasco!) and then launched her kite. She sailed a little further on port towards the Shandon shore and then gybed on to starboard; left of Ceres and Catriona and protecting the biased left end of the line. And the spinnaker paid as she steadily overhauled (or arguably under-hauled?) Catriona and eventually Ceres. Finishing the second round only just outside the hour. Catriona – once she had packed it (single-handed remember!) and had seen Arke – launched hers too. An exciting finish now between Ceres and Catriona; Ceres could try and protect the left of the biased line, but Catriona – with extra sail – would probably sail over her anyway. So she made the best of a bad situation and went a bit right to protect her wind but giving up the biased line left to Catriona. It just paid – impossible to call without a RO properly looking down the line. And so, with uncertainty, the rule is that the finish is awarded to the boat previously ahead – and Charles on Catriona graciously conceded the photo finish – for the second time this season.
1 Arke, 2 Ceres, 3 Catriona, 4 Dione, 5 Halcyone, 6 Athene
