Gerry Howcroft has posted a report on this year’s visit to Milton Keynes Sailing Club on February 7th 2010. Along with Simon Witham, the club was represented by the demonstration Tasar which performed well in a strong field.
Photographs courtesy of Milton Keynes Sailing Club are also available.
MKSC Open Pursuit Icicle Race – Feb 7th 2010
A race report by: Gerry Howcroft
My first outing of the year, an overcast grey day with a steady force 3 wind and 4 Deg Centigrade greeted us at the start of the race.
There were about 8 groups to start, with Simon and I in the demo Tasar and Barney and Howard also in a Tasar, and following were the Phantom, Blaze and Lasers.
Behind us was the single class MRXs from Wembley and the RS300s, both beautifully elegant looking boats on the water, with very little wetted area and wide flaring, to perch your bum on.
The force 3 wind was blowing along the length of the lake giving a course with 2 long beats and several short Broad Reach/Runs back down the lake; not the ideal conditions for a Tasar with a heavy weight crew.
It took me a while to remember what to do, I forgot how much there is to do in the Tasar, I felt like a beached flailing octopus, sorry Simon; tried hard, could do better!
We did start getting it together about half way through the race, just as John Carron in his RS300 went past, with his sights on the guys at the front. We started picking off the trailing Lasers one by one, and behind us the MRX and RS300 fleet were doing the same thing, then on one downwind leg, a veritable fleet of MRX and 300’s went past in procession, leaving Simon and I with nothing to do except shrug, by now in the cold conditions, with a slight shiver to it.
Up at the front Howard and Barney were battling it out with the Phantom, and John in his RS300 hot on their heels, but what was that at the front? An Otter!
John muscled his way past Howard and Barney then in the last couple of laps got in front of the Phantom and the Otter.
Meanwhile Simon and I were jockeying with a couple of Lasers, which we finally saw off, then the Blaze was in our sights, which we managed to get in front of on one of the reaches and finally put some space between us. We were now coming close to the end of the race with a Byte and Solo just in front; we set off on the chase.
It was the long windward leg, it was hard to decipher who was in front as we were approaching the mark, the Byte on port and us on Starboard. She had called it too tight and we squeezed past her right at the mark, which found her having to put in a short tack, leaving her 5 boat lengths behind.
We then started out after the Solo; we were gaining fast on a broad reach, reeling him in, boat length by boat length, when it happened! The dreaded hooter, to signal the end of the race, finishing us in 14th out of 21 starters, (sorry again Simon) wish I had got it together sooner, must be because I didn’t have the missus shouting at me!!
It was an enjoyable race, good course, well run, good experience, MKSC did a good job, big thanks to their hospitality, and keeping us warm with drinks and bacon butties.
The usual prize giving followed with 3rd place going to Howard and Barney in the Taser, 2nd went to Wembley man in his Phantom, with 1st place going to John Carron in the RS300. There was 1 DNF and 1 DSQ the OTTER, for 1man in a 2 man dinghy, no wonder he was hard for the leaders to catch.
Res
Gerry Howcroft
You may also be interested in reading the MKSC Race Report.