Seasalter TT

[Steve Willis]

Martin has put the results up already Kevin Dutch 1st overall and 1st Sport mode, 2nd Charles Watson, 3rd Ben Tunnacliffe

Full report to follow in couple of days but some basics:

The weather forecast changed all week but we finally had overcast/broken sun for both days with winds F3-4 gusting 27mph on Saturday giving some good sailing. Unfortunately the first race was far too short but some good sailing weather (many laughs after all my lining my boat up over the winter as I lost a shroud having just powered up and 10 metres from the start - mast down narrowly missing Gordon Goldstone). A few capsizes by the home boys.

Sunday was weird with Easterly F3 for the first race and the first lap of the second, then the wind did a 330 degree shift in 5 minutes and led to some interesting re-arrangements in the fleet order. A (too) long second race (Martin recorded 20 miles on his GPS) but with some good but shifty winds.

19 boats took part - 10 from Seasalter, 3 each Halifax and Queen Mary plus one from each of Hollowell, Shanklin and Whitstable.

Welcomes to their first TT go to Ian Collyer (1945 Hollowell), Andy Carter(640, SSC) and Tim Seymour (1923, SSC).

Good to see George Stephen on the water as well this time.

Thanks to Bob Carter for coming to watch and advise - and for selling me his spare shrouds and helping me get rigged up again for the second race.

Thanks to all for coming.

Best wishes

Steve Willis

[George Stephen]

Steve,

Our thanks to Seasalter for putting on this really enjoyable event, on a weekend when your members gave up for us a good length of sailing time when you had water, and at a reasonable time of day! And when for most of the time we had a good breeze.....

Our special thanks to Lesley and her galley slaves - who were on duty from 9 o'clock until late on Saturday, and again from 9 o'clock until evening on Sunday. And a 3 course dinner for just £6-50!

The only serious complaint came from those staying overnight in the boatpark - it really did get very cold! A few did not notice the cold - something to do with alcohol in the blood it seemed, not that it stopped them getting good results on the Sunday!

It was my first Traveller for over a year, and only the 8&9th days I've been able to sail in nearly 10 months! I'm obviously short of fitness, and practice (sorry Erling for my transgression at the start of the last race - I did do my turn, but that's not adequate redress). I hope to be better next time......

PS The Class Chairman seemed to be below his usual form on the water. He was saying something about his age, but Erling and I agree it should not have mattered....

PS2 One of the capsizes involved an involuntary gybe while sailing by the lee to make the leeward mark. The helm got knocked off the boat, and the boat pitchpoled over the inflatable! I arrived just as the capsized boat had drifted 10 ft past the mark. I sailed through the gap, gaining a place on Eric Sales who'd had to sail all the way round the end of the mast....
My real reason for mentioning this is that there was an earlier Chat thread about sailing by the lee. It's something I do when I think I can gain on the run, especially when there are waves that can be used to gain boatspeed - either to get up to wavespeed in really light wind or to gain even more boatspeed in medium or stronger winds. By steering this advantage may also be used to sail by the lee to gain distance to leeward as well as downwind to counter the windward distance "lost" when you luffed to gain speed, or to get clearer air away from following boats, or just for advantage near to the leeward mark.
Because the mainsail cannot trim forward of the mast due to the shrouds, the problem is the involuntary gybe, for which you have to be ready to throw the tiller extension around the mainsheet (or even over the stern in desperation) before the fall of the mainsheet catches the tiller extension and flips the rudders and luffs the boat onto more of a reach.....
I reckon that there are 3 (or more) factors which contribute to the involuntary gybe.
A is windshift
B is a wave catching the sterns and pushing you more by the lee....
C is a lull in the wind, which with the additional boatspeed can temporarily mean that the boat is travelling faster than the wind, so that the main is pushed aftwards, initiating the gybe.
It's possible that additional boatspeed alone could initiate the gybe described in C, ie without a lull in the wind.
If you're going to try sailing by the lee, be vigilant and expect to cope with capsizes....

[Ben]

just to also send my thanks to the whole seasalters event very enjoyable and much fun. very nice beer was consumed by most, and early morning bedtimes.

just to add to george's point it wasnt anything to do with the lack of blood in my alcohol stream. i believe it was the fact we are northern prepared. (or it was 5 in the morning and was starting to get light anyway)

my father has shown its not just the young ones who will stay up till early hours and so come on oldies get drinking.

[Charles]

Yes, great event, great hospitality, lots of different wind speed & direction to give us all a challenge.

That tide stuff got in the way a bit too, when I did the puddle sailor thing of undershooting the mark & then hitting it! On the other hand it helped a bit when I went deep on the run down to what had been the windward mark!

Thanks to all concerned

[Charles]

Oh, forgot to say sorry to Steve W for pushing him out at the last start... 'tis the rules ;¬) and for querying his "proper course" he was quite right, but it was worth a try! and to Tim S (I think) and Gordon & Erling for getting in their way on the start line, I took the penalty 'tis the rules! :¬(

Also hope John H found the water for 3 boats rule demo useful, nice of Chris & Gordon to do turns, but no need, as we discussed later (I thought it was the Sprint version of dancing on ice, with so many pirouettes going on!).

[George Love]

Sounds like a good event all round
Will there be an event report with some good photos, please
Cheers

[Steve Willis]

Thanks for the comments guys. We enjoyed it both on the water and off, nice to have a fleet that likes to relax properly (and we didn't have a guitar in sight).

As a small club nearly half of our members helped run the event and with 10 of our Sprints on the water more than 2/3 were involved. We have two club dinghy events during the next couple of months to return the favour.

Ian Mills one of our Dart18 sailors took about 120 photos with telephoto lens so he is going to sort them out, we also have some others coming in from various sources.

Write up to follow and hopefully some comments from the first timers.

Crucial sailing Charles - no problem I should have known better the first time and did the second ! At least I was still up with you at that stage !Poor Tim was having kittens though, first event and only just got his boat back together after a spectacular inversion at the end of last season in F6-7 (broken mast and other bits).

The capsize through leaving the gybing boat was our Commodore Chris Stafford - momentary brain fade.

Best wishes

Steve

[Steven Tunnacliffe]

my father has shown its not just the young ones who will stay up till early hours and so come on oldies get drinking.

Son

Your not calling the "PIE MAN" old are you

To add to the other comments, the entire membership of SSC did as they have in the past made us all very welcome and produced a great event.
Thanks to all behind the scenes in rescue boats, Lesley and the galley slaves, Race officers, Lynn and Dave in the bar and the Shepherds Neame brewery for what they can turn water into

Nick thanks for the Bongo tour, great fun

P.s I have some general photos havnt looked at them yet so will cherry pick and forward on if they are OK

[Tim]

Just wanted to say well done to everyone for the weekend at SSC. Really brilliant weekend and lots of hard work from my fellow club members.

My first TT and a learning curve (sailing, I can already drink) with some very good sailors. Apologies accepted Charles, as Steve W said, my boats life flashed in front of my eyes, hence the colourful language

Hope to see you all next time.

Tim

PS Well done Kev for keeping SSC on top of the podium

[c.stafford]

As commodore of SSC I would like to thank you all for suporting our TT, we did have a couple of admin glitches, Which I hope did not detract from the sailing. I note that a serious attempt to damage the bar stocks was made ( lots of empties to lose).Any speaking for myself I had almost forgotten what fun boats the Sprint 15's are and this is reflected in the people that sail them.
For myself I realy need to make life difficult by throwing in the odd collision with bouys and capsize to make me work hard.
You never know I might find my trailer and venture on to foriegn waters and colect some more raffle tickets.
See you on the water sometime

Chris Stafford

[George Stephen]

Ben,

I thought you should have an independent assessment of your dad's age - he isn't an oldie, he just has lots of the right male hormones!!!

Some of us oldies, well me anyway, have so much wrong with them that some food and drink either can't be taken at all or can be taken only in token measures. As we ain't happy about it, berating us is likely to rile us so much that we sail harder and better to beat the pests who remind us that things ain't what they used to be!!!

[Andrew Hannah]

Well done Steve Willis and all the Seasalter folk for organising what must have been a memorable open meeting. You had a glorious weekend with a good breeze on the saturday, and perhaps a little less on sunday. The weather was warm and sunny: spring weather at its best.

You also had a good turnout. I notice Keith Chidwick from QMSC was there. Did Keith mention his brother, Andy? He used to be such a regular attendee at events like Seasalter. I haven't heard of Andy for ages.

I'm sorry I wasn't there myself. I had a club duty that weekend. But I plan to go to Marconi. In fact, Thorpe Bay intends to be there in big numbers.

Those bloomin' pond sailors from Halifax were at it again! Who says they know little about tides? A few years ago, I managed to ride over the windward mark at Grafham. What would I have done if Grafham was tidal?

You all had a good time. What more could you want!

[Bob Carter]

Sounds like a good event all round
Will there be an event report with some good photos, please
Cheers

Hi Guys
I've loaded some of the pictures I took in the Photos section of this website. George (Love) you have a CD of more pictures winging it's way to you for consideration for the next magazine.
Cheers
Bob

[Ben]

yes those puddle splashers from halifax are at it again top two una rigs i do believe, and the (not old apparantly hormones bullshit ) not far behind! hopefully there shall be a halifax gathering at marconi aswel (if charles has a pass out & a apprentice has a healthy wallet) so fill the bar ha ha!

sorry george s i dont mean to rub it in and i know you were working hard to show me you still have it bloody close at times making me sail harder i was nackered by the end of it but it was meant to be this time i was determined to get a nice trophy to show my friends when they come round only have a few so far! ha ha keep up the competition guys loved the event starting with that many boats without a timer is interesting need to invest in a velcro watch but close competition by all (EXPEPT DUTCH does he really need two sails and a trapeze??)

[Kevin Dutch]

Only getting in practice for the upcoming nationals Ben.