7 November 2021
The day was a blur. It started peacefully chatting to the organisers, sipping coffee by the lake watching the swans, ducks and pigeons and then the racing began. 24 races one after the other with barely a gap between races apart from a short lunch. No one had any idea how they were doing because the finishing positions were so inconsistent. In the end Dave Allinson took the well deserved win with a superb set of results in the afternoon and a not to shabby morning after he sorted out his boat balance issues. He did claim to be a local so perhaps he was able to read the conditions better.
The Eastbourne and District Model Yacht club is a lovely facility. The have a large boat house which of course means endless tea if you want it and lots of boats to admire but sadly we were based on the other side of the pond for our racing. The race officers did brilliantly setting a course despite the fickleness of the wind. There were huge shifts to be had all over the course and a first could be converted in to 5th or 6th in seconds if you went the wrong way and visa versa.
As for me I posted a consistent set of results and was only 3 points of the lead. There were several time where I was in a good position and fell back, but also many times where I was blocked at the start and recovered well so in the end it was a fair result. There was a lot of bumping and barging at the windward mark but this was forgivable given the distance from the sailors and the fact that on port you had no perception where you were in relation to a starboard boat and we struggled to see the numbers of who hit who. When the wind blows down the lake this problem goes away.
My thanks to the organising team who did a brilliant job packing in so many races and congrats again to Dave for taking the win. Great sailing
Here are the results but you need to zoom in to see them. The gaps are the discards. There was no time to take any pictures.
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