Despite a less than inspiring forecast for very light winds, seven Streaker helms eager for some open meeting action, arrived at Redditch Sailing Club on Saturday morning. These included regular series competitors, with Rupert Smith travelling all the way from the south coast, and a new comer in the form of Robert Campbell from Cransley Sailing Club, attending his first ever Streaker Open Meeting.
Given the current circumstances, social distancing remained a priority, with a skeleton crew present to set the course, run the races and man the rescue boat. The plan was to run three races back to back, or take a short break between races two and three, depending on how things were going, helping to minimise potential pinch points around launch and recovery.
Around 11am the fleet assembled on the start line for race one. A tricky start in the gap between the club and the island, locals James Dawes (2112) and Ross Crawford (1892) made the best of the very light breeze to lead the first leg. James made it to the first mark in the lead, promptly made contact with it and had to complete a penalty turn, while Matt Whitfield (1901), having found a nice bend in the wind, had managed to make ground and arrive at the first mark in second place, ahead of Ian Whitfield (1900) and Ross. James continued to lead for the next two legs, closely followed by Matt, until, on the short leg back towards the line, he decided to give his sail a wash, allowing Matt to sneak through into a narrow lead as they started the second lap. Not so fortunate on the next leg, Matt dropped back behind both James and a recovering Neil Firth (1977) who slotted nicely into second. Just behind in fourth was Ian, locked in a private battle with Ross. James would go on take the win despite a challenge from Neil who came home in second, with Matt third and Ian fourth.
The second race got underway as soon as the fleet had gathered back in the starting area. James again got the hole shot, with Ian and Matt in hot pursuit. The rest of the fleet seemed to struggle and a gap opened up fairly quickly. By this point, what little breeze there was had now completely died away, so it was very much a case of follow the leader, with there really only being one route around the course. Ian stuck close to James’s transom and, on two occasions did manage to pass him for the lead, only for James to re-take it on the following leg. Matt, with a good gap back to the rest of the fleet, tried a slightly different approach on a couple of legs to see if he could gain advantage over James and rather than simply sitting behind them, but this did not pay. The race finished with James in first, Ian in second and Matt taking another third. Behind, the rest of the fleet were close for most of the race, with fourth eventually going to Robert Campbell (1280) after a close battle with Neil.
The fleet elected to come ashore for a break an to see if the wind would fill in. After an hour or so of distanced chat, it became fairly apparent that there was going to be no more wind for the day and the fleet made the decision to forego the last race in favour of heading home a little earlier.
Overall, with two wins, James took a home victory, followed by Ian, courtesy of his second place in race two breaking the tie with Matt who took third. Neil was fourth overall, Robert fifth, Ross sixth with Rupert Smith (1681) in seventh and probably vowing never to come “north” to sail on a pond again.
Big thanks from all competitors to Redditch Sailing Club for hosting in such difficult conditions (Covid and weather related) and to James for having the enthusiasm to make sure the event could go ahead.
Report by Matt Whitfield |