Final Day

It blew old boots for the final day racing with strong winds from the SW around 25-30 knots. The famous Solent short chop played its part during a day of capsizes and exhilerating sailing.

The first race, we got off to a good early start through the gate, with Stuart Hudsun and Chrstian Guy to leward of us. With a strong tide running left to right this feels like the right place to be. But very quickly we find ourselves sagging badly off to leward. We are sailing sideways and slower than the boats around us. Within a few minutes it has cost us more than 50 yards on Stuart and Christian who are able to tack and begin crossing boats to the right. We are dead. Arrving at the windward mark well down the fleet, we bare away onto a chaotic reach. Getting any sense of control downwind was like trying to tame a wild beast - Kong is rabid.

The second race goes in a similar fashion, ending the series with a 27th and 23rd.

When we get ashore, a quick check over the boat reveals the cause of Kong's rabies. The painted surface of the centreboard has spent the day peeling off in sheets,like a huge brake causing horrible drag upwind and wreaking havoc downwind.

The Museum Crew get the last laugh here because they will remember baiting me for my search for more kong-speed during the lunchtime hours I spent applying this finish. Oh the irony!



How we managed to remain upright I really don't know - thanks Liz for your manic efforts to keep us flat.

Despite the bad timing and the disssapointment we feel much better knowing the cause.

Our final two results drop our position from 8th to 15th, but all in all we are stoked with the series and we have reachhed our target to finish in the top 15 - just. Phew!

We were not the only ones to have a less than perfect day. Some boats broke kit and many capsized, including Ben and Jenny Vines who had a real chance to win the series but ended 7th after swimming in each race.

That's the Championships! Stuart Hudson sailed a brilliant final day to finish 3rd overall, Steavie Greaves sailed a very consistent series to go into the final race in 1st place, but was match-raced off the start line by his closest rival Nigel Wakefield who went on to win the series with a 2nd in the final race. The overall results can be seen by clicking the link on the right.

Next year the Nationals will be held at Tenby from 14th August.

Thanks very much for following the blog and leaving your comments. The winner of the brand-new used sponge is Museum Crew with their particularly in-joke caption "Where is Graham when you need him?".
Cheers, Ben

Calling Pippa and Charlie....

Your Mum and Dad say "Hello kids, Saskia is having a great time celebrating her 50th birthday with all her friends, but is looking forward to getting to Roadford to play with all the other classic boats too!"



Now get off Grandad's computer and go and play outside!
XX

Racing abandoned...

Considering the amount of Pimms consumed by the fleet at last night's fancy dress extravaganza, there was some visible relief at this morning's news that racing was abandoned due to strong winds. An extra race is planned for tomorrow giving us a 2-race final day. The championship is still open, especially since the guy in pole position, Steve Tylecote, will not be showing tomorrow due to a badly timed prior commitment to be best man at a wedding. Considering the groom is none other than long-serving member of the Firefly committee Simon Spolton you could be forgiven for thinking its a fix. Simon you will be receiving an extra-big wedding prezzie from the fleet if we get our two races in tomorrow! Here's some piccies from last night's fancy dress. The theme was "Racing marks of the Solent"..can you guess the marks? Air Canada Corporate Finance Lymington Bank - A walking talking dancing ATM! Marine Track Trinity House


Needles Lighthouse - winner of the fancy dress!
And last but not least, the winners of yesterday's buddy prize, me (Billy (William) the Kid), Liz (West Brambles), Callum and Peter (Aquaspecs)

The Gore – Race 5/8

Hello to everyone sailing at Fowey today. You'll see below we got rather better weather today, but I hear you're having great racing all the same. Enjoy the inevitable shout this evening and the Red Arrows tomorow!

Today the fleet’s results were split into two – the gold fleet racing for the Sir Ralph Gore Trophy, one of the oldest and most prized trophies in dinghy racing, and the silver fleet racing for the Marlow Trophy.


Exeter Uni sailors Tom mallindine and Jamie Dick celebrate their GlOREious victory!

It's a marathon of a race. If you add together the race and the distance to and from the start line, we have sailed Dover to calais, or Lands End to Scilly today - in a Firefly! And hell it was hard work. After the first lap my arms were killing, and we still had another FIVE beats to go!!

If you followed last year’s blog you will remember how Peter and Dawn Langdon from Restronguet, veterans of the Firefly fleet, lead the Gore for about 12 miles before slipping to a heroic 2nd place on the final beat.

The sun shone all day long – ahh summer at last, we can leave our beanies at home for a change – with the wind blowing out of the SE gap between IOW and the shore. The big question was whether the sea breeze would overhaul the wind to a SW direction, and when. Otherwise it was the effect of the tides that was key to the day’s racing.

Thanks again to Hamish & Diana, who sail their XOD in the Solent, for the tidal book. Our Caravan members studied it last night and planned which way we wanted to go. Left, left, left, until around 14:20, then right. So we set our watch alarms, and sometime around 14:20 today, 3 boats in different areas of the course, tacked.



To an extent, it was all about the start. The boats that got to the left first and under the shore and out the tide, did best. We managed a spot-on pin-end start, got right over to the shore, tacked just before hitting it, and for a brief moment were leading the entire fleet to the windward mark. We arrived there a close 3rd with Steve Tylecote behind, Roger Morris just ahead of us and Tom Mallindine in the lead.



We kept Tylecote behind for a lap or so, and then clung on to 4th place for the rest of the marathon race. Meanwhile, Stevie Greaves and Alex Davey had an almighty battle up the final beat to finish 5th and 6th respectively.


Hey a bottle of champers for coming 4th can'nt be bad eh - i could get used to this!

It’s a big fleet, full of goals and dreams in each boat. The Marlow winners had a terrific battle today; our Buddies from last year Lucy and Rachael were rightly stoked with their 2nd place Marlow result, while our Buddies this year took 6th and might give us a chance for a buddy prize.

So, can we stay on target to finish the series in the top quarter? There are 3 races left, but it is forecasted to get very windy tomorrow, so we might struggle.

Check the Overall results on the NFA link at the top-right of this page.
Phew - gotta go and get my Billy the Kid outfit on now...
Why? Find out tomorrow.

Ben

Race 4/8; the half way mark.

The fact that the dinghy park seemed to be empty at 11 this morning may have been something to do with the success of the Crew’s Union entertainments last night. Helms were punctually lined up beside their boats awaiting the arrival of the bleary-eyed, with alka-selzer at the ready. Nb. Guy English recommends duck tape as a more effective hangover cure for crews.

Their evening’s entertainment included a game where teams vie to create the longest ‘rope’ of clothes. If you are struggling to imagine the chaos, let me introduce you to Penny, pictured here in the Duckhams dress today. She won the honour of wearing the Duckhams dress for managing to tear her bra in two. When quizzed today Penny said “it was an old bra, and they were tugging very hard”.

The Duckhams award is presented each evening for the day’s most egregious acts of gross under-achievement. Originally Duckhams winners were presented a ‘Duckhams Oil’ cap to wear, but this has evolved to the lovely dress & wig.

The fleet finally and tenderly made their way to the start area for Race 4. The sun is shining with a hangover-friendly force 2-3 breeze. Finally we are beginning to understand some of the complexities of the Solent tides – thanks to Hamish & Diana for the tides-book by the way – and manage to go more or less the right way up the beat. Yet again, Steve Tylecote ekes out a lead on the fleet with Nigel Wakefield in close pursuit. Behind them, the pack gets stuck together along the reaches, allowing them to stretch an insurmountable lead. We are banging away in the top 10 for the majority of the race and flying upwind, eventually getting a 5th place at the end.

Our caravan pals, Guy English and his crew Ben, and Rupert & Kathryn Whelan also had a good day. If only there was a performance-rated caravan prize.

Tomorrow the race results are split into two fleets. The top half race for the Sir Ralph Gore trophy while the second half fight it out for the Marlow. The course is set at a minimum of 13 nautical miles or minimum 3 hours, whichever comes first. Add to this the 5 mile sail to the start line and it’s set to be a long day.

Right now, the caravan Sheila’s are creating some cardboard bramble-bushes for tomorrow night’s fancy dress evening. The theme is ‘Marks of the Solent’, which include Brambles East and Brambles West. There’s another called ‘Spanker’; Shame my old mate Paul Hass isn’t here.

Guy Davidson’s quote of the day:
“I could just go in a pair of swimming trunks and a bald head”

Hope its all going well at the Maritime Museum this week. The fleet sends its regards to Fe (Firefly No1).
Ben

Yeeha

A beautiful day's sailing today in light winds and sunshine. We came 5th - our best nationals result so far. More on this later - we gotta run back to the caravan for Ultimate Frisbee.

Ben

Photo Caption Competition

Here's a picture of young Finn Morris, washing down his boat. Captions please! The most witty offering will get a superb prize: a brand new used sponge and an Honourable Mention.

A day of two halves - Races 2&3

Today was a two-race day.
This morning's race began around 11:10 in light WSW winds. The gate start gets off cleanly and it soon becomes apparent that the left hand side is favorite for better breeze. We manage to get into a good position on the fleet and finish 9th in conditions that we seem to do better in. Local Barny Smith makes up for his bad luck yesterday, giving Steve Tylecote & Sally Wilson a run for their money and finishing 3rd behind Ben and Jenny Vines.

Remember Ella Vincent from 2008? Well she's back this year with Dad Dan, winners of the Tallest and Tiniest crew-combination prize...if there was one. At probably no more than 4 stone (a gentleman never asks) Ella makes the perfect light wind crew taking Dad into 7th at the finish.

Towards the end of the race the wind began to back, forcing the race committee to shift the windward mark to the south.

The second race is started with a traditional line-start, and by the time it gets underway the wind is blowing from the west about 20knots. Three loud gun-blasts from the committee boat signal the first start is abandoned after the majority of the fleet are over the line by a mile.

But we are all better behaved for the second start. We start about half way along the line. It's not the best start, but we tack off to port, duck one or two transoms and find ourselves crossing all the other boats that started to the right, getting to the windward mark in the late teens somewhere. We found that the right hand side of the beat was generally the way to go, but there are lots of wind shifts out there to keep it interesting.

The reaches are both exhilerating and challenging in these conditions. The wind is strong enough to be planing all the way, and the chop and wash from other boats keeps you on your toes!

After a few difficult mark roundings, including one where we ended up doing turns for someone else, we finish 18th. Stuart and Jane Hudson win the race by a country mile. Dan and Ella have a tougher time in the windy conditions, but despite a capsize are still smiling at the end of a very long day.

This evening the crews and the helms split. The helms head for the RAFYC for a civilised evening of stimulating conversation and fine dining. Meanwhile the crews traditionally form the annual meeting of the 'Crews Union' which amounts to something like a hen-party where the crews do what only crews do best: try to stay upright for a few hours. The men among the crews generally take at leat a year of rehab to recover from this female-dominated affair. The dress code is skirts - with no exceptions!

If I am able to harvest any gossip from inside the crew's Union I will bvring it to you tomorrow.

Meanwhile I'm off for port and billiards - cheerio.
Ben

Race 1/8 and Flat-Pack Ferries

Hurra! Lighter winds today. Or so it was until about 11am when the breeze picked up to a decent force 4+. Urgggg!

Still, there's much more to racing here in the solent...like the Ikea Ferry, made 90% from mdf, and inside you have to walk about 2 miles to get to where you want to go, by which time you have arrived.




Now sitting in the bar of HRSC with a hard-earned pint.

Once again today the first start is abandoned, but the second gets away without incident. Unlike poor Barny Smith, who is full of incident during both starts. Evidently his halyard had broken and he deperately tries to fix the mainsail to the top of the mast while capsized, but fails to get it done and upright in time to start. Barny from HRSC has been the cheif organiser of this championship, and deserves better luck, having missed the practice race yesterday to keep everything run smoothly. Ah there he goes now past the window of the bar carrying his mast...repaired I hope.

Race One is a long one. Triangle, sausage, triangle, sausage, beat to finish. We have mixed fortunes, suffering up the beats but regaining places on the reaches. We just don't seem to be getting the speed on the beats that we need. Whether it's the chop, the wind, or us, we don't know, but all three no doubt. The last beat is the worst, losing 4 boats to finish 20th after nearly 2.5 hours. Then again, last year we would have been delighted with a result like that in these conditions, and there are some terrific sailors trying to keep ahead of us so we cant complain.

Besides, the sun is shining and the beer is cold, so all's well in the Hamble!

Speedy Steve Tylecote wins the race ahead of Stuart Hudson. Clink on the NFA link on the right to see the overall results.

Fingers crossed for lighter winds.
Ben

Best buddies with the Commodore!

After racing we collapse in our caravan for an hour before the 'Commodore's reception' at HRSC. During the evening we find out who our buddies are. The buddy system matches up boats from opposite ends of the fleet as a kind of way to pass on experience through the fleet, and make new friends of course. There are prizes each day for the best combined buddy result.

Well our buddy turns out to be none other than the Commodore himself, Peter Slimming. Peter has sailed in over 25 Firefly National Championships and is still going well now and what he doesn't know about the Hamble conditions probably aint worth knowing! So I think we might just profit most from this relationship. He's also a regular visitor to Falmouth and the SW Championships at Restronguet, and as it happens, old mates with my Dad. Small world.

RSC Sailors Guy and Catherine English, pictured here with Fate (F8) missed the practice race due to their commitments organising Falmouth Dinghy Week. Guy is the only other RSC boat here this year, and scores a terrific buddy in Stuart Hudson, winner of the Practice Race.

Practice Race - a slog in the solent

The traffic beating out of Hamble River was like the A303 yesterday - Busy! Lots of yachts motoring out of the River, but they are respectful of our little craft. From Hamble River SC you have to sail out the river and turn left, out along So'ton Water to the rac area in the Solent. It took the fleet about an hour to reach the start area located in the Solent with a good force 4-5 blowing and everyone planing hard.

The first start was abandoned for some incident that happened along the line – but the second start gets everyone off fairly. We are second through the gate, so going up the left of the beat hoping for an early wind shift. But there aint none, and we’re not going particularly fast in the nasty chop which also makes tacking very costly. We try to wriggle our way right, where it seems to be favoured, but too many tacks leaves us about 15 at the first mark.

We don't seem to be matching the top boats for speed upwind in this windy weather, but we can catch a few on the reaches. We finish in the mid teens, but a few boats ahead fail to finish and hand us a 12th. The boats ahead that didn't finish were all trying to avoid being 10th - the reason being that the 10th boat becomes the 'pathfinder' for the gate start in the next race which will be the first to count in the series. Stuart Hudson wins the race.

The results can e found through the HRSC website - click on the link on the right.

Lets get ready to RUMBLE…

Like every good fight, it starts with the weigh-in. Lets get ready to RUMBLE…in the Hamble! Each Firefly is hoisted by the fork-lift and weighed. Minimum weight of the stripped hull is 163llb or 74kg. Then the centreboard and the rudder are checked they meet the minimum weights and jib poles are checked for length. All very official, but it gets the championship off to a fair and level start. Curiously lots of boats have seemed to lose a few pounds weight over the year and need to add lead.

The lightest is 10 lbs underweight, and the heaviest - the oldest boat in the fleet as it happens, so we shouldn't blame the old girl's Fate - is 17 lbs overweight.

Lethal Hamble...

Anyone got any gen on Hamble?
Everyone we speak to that knows Hamble says...
"Ooh LETHAL tides" and "very choppy waters, very brown and lots of short chop, careful of the chop...oh and the tides...LETHAL tides!"

Cripes!

Seems there might be some tide then...and some chop. Anyone know any secrets that might help us get around quicker? It would only be fair to give us a chance against the locals!

The race course is supposed to be within 1 mile of William Buoy.

Falmouth Week provides final tune-up

A glorious day of sunshine in Falmouth today. The best we have had in a month. Finally Cornwall's visitors (aka Emmets)can go to the beach and meanwhile the Martitime Museum can draw a deep breath after so much rain has washed so many visitors through the doors over the wet weeks.

For Liz and I it was a chance to engage the dinghies competing n Falmouth Dinghy Week (FDW) for a last tune-up before we hit the long road to Hamble.

Arriving at the scene it was good to see a Firefly (Peter and Dawn Langdon to no-one's surprise)at the top of the leaders board in Division 3 which with 24 boats includes a whole range of small dinghies including Solos, Enterprises, RS Fevas, Laser radials and so on.

The Wayfarer Nationals is being run within FDW and provides a busy racecourse. No sign of Frank and Margaret Dye - probably off Norway somewhere...

The race begins under Trefusis Point in fickle conditions. The Langdons cleverly pick their way up to the shore and catch the Wayfarers up by the first mark - who all seem to be wallowing - perhaps chatting about their lunch or their last summer cruise or something!

We creep around behind them. This is a harbour race around the whole of the Carrick Roads. Somehow we manage to overhaul Peter & Dawn, and then eventually an Enterprise which has been dumped on by a huge wind shift.

After 2 hours of racing, isn't it incredible that two Fireflies can finish within seconds of eachother. Happily for us it was us just one boat-length ahead of the Langdons at the Finish. First over the line and first on handicap.

Then it was pack the boat onto trailer and ready for the road tomorrow.

The sailing's not over for the day yet though. This evening we sailed a SMOD (St Mawes One Design) in a 'Parade of Sail' around Falmouth Harbour. This is SMOD No 1, Aileen, a resident of the Maritime Museum floating collection on display on the pontoon. Here's a picture. My crew are Andy and Liz Palmer-Felgate - used to sail Fireflies but jumped ship to the faster RS500 and currently leading the FDW asymetric fleet.






Also pictured below is Daisy Belle sailed by Museum Director Jonatahan Griffin. This little boat has spent well over 100 years on the Fal.

2009 National Firefly Championships

The 2009 Nationals will be hosted by Hamble River Sailing Club from Saturday 15th - Friday 21st August.

I'll do my best to provide some kind of daily running commentary on this blog on the goings on, triumphs and troubles, glory and gossip from the event. Please join us on the journey and leave your comments.

My crew for this event is Liz, an old friend and very experienced Firefly sailor. This will be our 3rd Nationals together in my vintage Firefly 'Kong'. We also took part in the 2007 National Inland Championships and several Southwestern Championships which we won this year to our utter astonishment. See the report at http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=146746

Better get back to my sitting-out exercises now....
Hhurrgggg,
Ben