Endeavour Trophy
Just a few notes from the events.
The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Organised a very good event, it was a shame I was unable to make the training day as this would have made us better prepaired.
On Saturday we sailed well up the river beyond Creeksea SC. The river was about 200 M wide less 10 M each side with thick mud. With loads of tide. The startlines were really tight, probably about 100M long.
Once you started the leeward boats almost immediately called for water, there was some reluctance / delay it getting the starboard boats to tack as they themselves had boats on starboard bearing down on them.
It all became very easy if you were able to get out of the pack resulting in the leader of all 5 races on the first day extending to a lead of nearly 3 minutes.
With the tide flowing with you on the beat the middle was favorite. However it was a case of bank hugging on the way down the runs. Normal practise was around 40 gybes per run, you never wanted to travel greater than 10 meters from either bank plus you had to avoid boats on starboard, the mud etc. The result was the pack would bunch up end making the leeward gate a bumper car ride of fun...! As the finish was 100M upwind of the leeward gate your result was dependant on your rounding I know we lost 15 places in 1 race & gained at least 10 in another. As the wind dropped through the day and we got the hang of the tactics envolved in downwind sailing, our results improved to 15th place twice, leaving us 20th place overnight.
Sunday and the wind was blowing a little more from the south, therefore the fleet set sail eastwards towards the mouth of the Roach. In this bigger sailing area, we sailed much better, getting off the startline in the top few, rounding the windward mark in the leading pack & sometimes taking places downwind. a third & a another good position (should have been top 10) followed, however disaster struck in the final race when we panic gybed whilst running aground and lost a load of places. anyway we dragged ourselves up to 19th place overall (out of 30).
Not a great position but the racing was so close, we once lost 7 places in 7 seconds when the kite halyard got tangled aroung the spreader, a little more assymetric experience wouldn't have gone amiss. but no shame on the class. Most of the people at the top sail or have sailed assymetric boats extensivley and face it there were No duffers in the fleet.
Will
