Race 5 - The Sir Ralph Gore Trophy

Westerly 20mph all day. Terrific planing conditions for todays marathon race. The top half of the fleet racing for the most prized cup in Firefly sailing, the Sir Ralph Gore Trophy, and the 2nd half of the fleet competing for the Marlow Cup.



Team RSC got into the prizes with F8 (Fate) finishing 6th in the Marlow Fleet at the hands of Guy and Katie, and with a little help from some gaffa tape holding the planks in place underneath!



Winner of the Gore was Stuart and Jane Hudson by a country-mile, winning by some 3 minutes. Top RSC boat was myself and Liz, finishing 10th...we think. In which case we will be Pathfinder for the gate start tomorrow, yikes! Ah - just seen the results and we came 11th today, so our pathfinding will have to wait another time.

Dave and Betty finished a few boats behind us

Race 4

Blowy NW, very shifty.
Classic welsh wetness greeted us this morning. This is more like the welsh weather that i remember from Swansea Uni days. The beer hasn't changed much since those days either - they put something funny in it to make your head go wobbly you know, and both Liz and I were still wobblinng this morning. Managed to lose one glove on the slipway which I found, but by then I had lost the other one! So it was a Michael Jackson impression from me today.

So it was with that auspicious beginning that we wobbled into our good ship Kong for Race 4...

Today was a one-race day, with a gate start and we were first boat out the gate allowing us to take advantage of the shifty conditions. 3rd around the windward mark - lovely. But it was a long race and a tricky one. Places were traded on every leg, we did well on some and were overtaken on others. Unfortunately for us our last beat was our worst, tacking on the shifts up the middle while boats that went up either side did better. We finished 11th.

Next Restronguet boat was Dave & Betty in their purplink (not quite purple, not quite pink) boat Water Spider

Jamie's sister Lindsay crewed for him today, both beaming with smiles throughout the race. Guy and Katie enjoyed a paticularly good final beat among the back half of the fleet, pushing their boat 'Fate' (F8)hard to overtake a good bunch. The poor old girl needs some emergency TLC though after a couple of planks popped, so much was the strain.

Tomorrow is the marathon race for one of the most prestigious prizes in sailing history - the Sir Ralph Gore Trophy. A mimimum of 3 hours or 13 miles, whichever comes first.

Cheers for now,
Ben

Race 2 and 3

Light NW winds and sunshine greeted the 66 competitors this morning in Tenby. Tenby is a lot like a welsh version of St Ives. Not just the buckets and spades and inflatable dinghies adourning every shop front, but the same beautiful beaches, harbour and narrow streets. The driving ban betwen 10 and 5pm would be a good idea for St Ives too.

Already few bruises on display throughout the fleet.

Race one was meant to be a traditional line-start, but after 3 failed attempts at getting a fair start away the race committee opted for a gate start instead.

Then the gate start too was abandoned mid-way, but a second gate-start got the fleet underway at long last. A pretty frustrating race for us as we went from looking very good to mid-fleet to down-the-pan, then crawled our way back to 20th at the finish. Once again Dave & Betty finished first RSC boat, finishing 2 boats in front of us and having had a similar race.

Race 2
Once again we started at the beginning of the gate, thinking that left would pay as the wind was forecast to back and to make use of any shifts. After about 1 minute a shift came through allowing us to tack accross pretty much the entire fleet - just about the best sight in the world! 4th around the windward mark, the leader being the pathfinder* from the gate start which is pretty incredible given he was the boat furthest right. He led from there all the way to the finish.

On the final beat we dropped to sixth but managed to overhaul the two boats in front in an exciting end to the race, 4th - a really great feeling.

Now scoring a 20th (discard), 18th and a 4th

*Pathfinder
A gate start is different to a line start. A boat is nominated as the PATHFINDER, and he must sail close-hauled on port tack and during a window of 2 minutes the fleet can start by crossing behind him on starboard tack.

Race One

High tide meant an easy launch from the slipway - when the tide is out its a 1/2 mile walk!

Very light NE winds, the fleet barely made it to the start but a small increase in pressure got the fleet underway. Lots of boats chose to start through the gate early to get to the supposedly advantageous left side of the course. By lap 3 the wind gave up entirely and the fleet struggled to finish. The rule is that you must finish within one hour of the first boat finishing otherwise you will be scored as DNF or Did Not Finish. unfortunately for some of teh fleet that was the case.


The highlight of the race was the reach to the final mark which took some 45 minutes sitting going nowhere into the tide, and sometimes backwards. Then the wind swung 180 degrees and allowed us to get moving again.
Dave and Betty came from well back in the fleet to finish 15th while we finisheed 18th with 18 minutes left on the clock. Two other RSC boats finished: Alan & Sophie and Patrick & Bill. Unfortunately Guy&Katie and Jamie&Freya got caught way out in the tide and were scored DNF.

Tomorrow's forecast looks light again, but no one wants another race like that one.

Team RSC took to Tenby's beautiful South Beach for football and Ultimate Frisbee (bit like netball but with a frisbee) before the spectacular Firework display in the harbour. Thank you Tenby!

Practice race

A fantastic race in windy wavey conditions. We could only manage an apalling start 100 yds behind after we took on water just before. But we got to the windward mark mid fleet but we retired when we filled up again at the busy leward mk. Ah well thats what a practice race is for. Dave and betty finished first - and only - RSC boat.

Ready for the off

We sailed two more races of falmouth week today in strong breeze and big tides bringing our total to four wins from four... Cheeky. Peter and dawn still leading the fleet...good onya guys, go B2! Met a sailor from tenby. His local sailing tip was "if you can smell the sheep poo, head left." excellent! Kong packed and ready for the long trip tomorrow. Thanks to andrew pool for the loan of undercover. Ben

Flying with red wings

A beautiful day for the beginning of falmouth week. Two races in handicap fleets, mixing it up with the Redwings who are here in force for their nationals this week. These beautiful boats with their distinctive red sails were designed by Uffa Fox for Looe Sailing Club back in the day. For anyone wanting to see one up close, we have a brand new Redwing on display in the Museum for a couple of weeks.

Only one other firefly out to test our speed (Peter & Dawn Langdon) but Kong was flying today. Still waiting for the results

Warm-up to Tenby

Only a week until we hit the road to Tenby! But Falmouth week is our warm-up to the National Championships and racing begins on Sunday. We'll be competing in a mixed class of dinghies: lasers, solos, wayfarers etc, but we're expecting several Fireflies to make it good racing.

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!
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