Thanks to all at Marconi for running this event.
With the wind so light and variable (slower at times and places than the tide!!!!) on the Wednesday, racing looked almost impossible, but the RO set a really short course close to the clubhouse, and we all set out into the ebbing tide. Getting to the start line was easy, beating back inshore against the tide wasn't. It was worse when you had to try to cross the ebbing current from south of Osea to round the windward mark - it helped to be masochistic when you'd missed the mark by less than 2 boat lengths because the flush of breeze that got you there had died, leaving you to drift back almost out of control as you tried to get back inshore, not for the first time, to beat back the 100 to 200 metres you'd just lost..... But most got round and away to the wing mark - which was in the ebbing current from north of Osea...... Failure to get into the ebbing current downwind and be really close to the leeward mark was fatal - you could easily have to beat back an extra 200 metres if you didn't...... So just the one lap (but not for everyone......).
The 2nd race was better. The breeze had strengthened marginally, and maybe the tide was running slower. We even sailed a 2 lap race (but again not everyone....).
For the 3rd race, we'd had lots of practice beating inshore before getting round the windward and wing marks so most made them as the breeze dropped.... However close you were to the leeward mark, the tide there was running as fast as the breeze... and you slowly drifted away, making marginal progress across the current shore-ward, until some 200 + metres down tide you reached the shallows close to shore and could start to make progress. Just the one short lap took 54 minutes for the leading boat.....
It was clearly a day when the combination of local knowledge and good light wind sailing skill paid off.
There was good company for the evening meal at the club, and in the bar afterwards. Before 7:30 three of us discovered we'd drunk the best part of 2 bottles of wine between us..... as you would after the day's excitement, and in the knowledge that the club wind gauge displayed OO FO.
Sunday dawned with everything you could ask for but wind. The start for the Round the Islands Race was postponed. Eventually we all set out into the flooding tide - paddling round the club jetty to the starting line because beating against the current was impossible. With boats lined up ashore, held by helms standing in the water, the RO postponed the start again, and changed the course to a down wind down tide start. Some fickle breeze set in and we were soon off, but when you got into the faster current it took all the breeze out of our sails again. I still don't know if we got into an area of little tidal current or whether some breeze did fill when we we had to pass between Osea and Northey, and it did gradually strengthen for the very long beat back to the club - but not enough to get us off the trampoline/ front beam/ foredeck position.
But yet again the light conditions favoured the skilled locals.
Still, it was really good practice lest the wind be as light at Instow for the Sport Nationals......
