Jack Hill-Heaton single handed race 13-06-10
Posted By admin on June 13, 2010
First order of business; don’t take any notice of the weather forecast as the “rain” forecast for the afternoon “piss”isted down in the morning as everyone prepared for the race, dripping sails, wet kit, lovely. The breeze looked to have settled westerly at a steady 10 knots as the start line formed with PMT, Dilemma and Rupert Bear first out of the blocks, Joan, Amy, Shearwater and Esk were in full pursuit with Wild Wave and Raven hunting them down. On the fetch to the Bell Buoy the long water line of Shearwater became evident as she steadily caught up and sat on the transom of Rupert, fairly daunting site, 4 tonnes of Fulmar and 1 tonne of Pollard bearing down on you. PMT rounded first with Dilemma, Rupert and Shearwater in close order, Amy , Joan and Wildwave followed with Esk and Raven sweeping up.
It all got a bit much for Dilemma on the run to Sandwick with impatient “nose” popping the kite; not pretty but worth a few yards leaving Rupert behind. After an interesting drop the beat to the harbour saw a fairly tactical leg with Rupert Bear coming into the Bay and the others holding as close to the lay as they could. After the Sausage Dilemma just had the lead on the water closely followed by PMT, who had sneaked infront of Rupert Bear at the mark with Amy, Shearwater and the regular suspects in pusuit. The final beam reach to the Bell saw PMT round first with Dilemma running slightly wide allowing Rupert Bear to turn tighter and gain a 20 yard advantage, no errors from the rest of the fleet kept the running order as was, however Esk was never dropped off the back of the fleet and continued to be sailed strongly keeping in contention.
On the run to the penultimate mark, Mark in PMT decided to launch the asymetric to gain yards, and yes it did look a little hairy for a while, but yards were gained and the kite dropped cleanly to round the mark even after a large amount of bottom was exposed! Next round was Rupert Bear closely followed by Dilemma with Amy, Shearwater and the remaining fleet in close company.
Check the results page for the final score after handicaps have been applied, but sorry Mark in PMT; I knew i should have not only wiped him out on the Harbour mark but also checked his handicap! New congratualtions to Brian in Amy.
As this is the Jack Hill-Heaton memorial race his son Peter gave an impromptu insight into old sailing terms and limmericks, unfortunately the limmericks can’t be reproduced, the story of the Ballan Cross (Crosh Ballan) is a bit sketchy and the only factual thing is Peter’s is an 1 inch long! Everyone decided further information was too personal and the conversation and concentration slowly drifted off as Mark in the Glue Pot had a new barrel of Bass tapped.
A good days sailing and good craic after epitomising CDMYC sailing. Great to see a new old winner emerge again, lets hope it’s not going to be a habit and as ever thanks to Tony for swinging the bridge.
Whilst I would love to bask in glory, it appears that someone has altered my handicap from 1070 to 1170 , so unless you think I need a helping hand, I will revert to my true handicap!
Yes Queasy - PN1070 puts you into second place with 3478 seconds corrected.
Not quite sure why CDMYC produces results to thousandsths of a second - racing must be closer than it appears. Pretty good going though - kite up on your own (and then getting it down without the swimming lesson). Impressive.
Cheers guys, thought i’d fed the PC gremlin. Results updated and not a new winner, sorry Mark.