#sb20 – After last weeks abandonment due to too much breeze, for a short while this evening it looked like there would be an abandonment due to a lack of breeze... thankfully, the wind-gods smiled on the SBs once more and the breeze picked up just in time to provide a very pleasant 6-10 knots south-easterly in a flooding tide writes Michael O'Connor. With the sun beaming down, it made for perfect Thursday evening racing!
In total, eight boats made it out onto the start line - great to see numbers holding and it looks like we will be building on this over the coming weeks and months. Due to the lack of breeze earlier on in the evening, two boats (SacreBleu (Ben et al) and Seriously Bonkers (Peter, Michael and Caroline) were caught out getting out on time and started a few minutes after the rest of the fleet however both boats made a game effort of catching up with the fleet on their way around and scared a few boats towards the end...
Of the six boats that did start on time, Alert Packaging (Justin, Darren et al) got off to a flier a boatlength down from the favoured committee boat end with Should Be... (Michael, Owen and Gavan) on their hip but a bit behind and Venuesworld (Ger, Chris and Rory) starting on port ducking their transoms and heading in towards shore and the slacker tide. Manamana (Doug, Ronan and Katie) and Probably (Billy, Mark and Ian - with Billy on the helm today) started a little further down the line and Smoke on the water (Bob, Louise et al) started a little late at the committee boat end.
In the light breeze, the boats struggled against the tide up towards bullock harbour and the boats had to decide between better breeze offshore or less tide inshore. At the first mark, Alert Packaging, who flirted with both offshore and inshore at just the right times and showing a great turn of pace, had built up an impressive lead and was followed by Probably a few boatlengths behind and Manamana a couple of boatlengths further back. There was a bit of a gap then to the second group of Should Be... Smoke on the Water and Venuesworld. A slight navigational snafu by the leaders brought the tail markers back into the mix and Venuesworld in particular making significant gains, getting up to third place after some excellent decision-making. However, both Alert Packaging and Probably sailed very solidly to stay in first and second respectively.
In the end, Alert Packaging had built up a very impressive lead and won comfortably from Probably in a very creditable second followed closely by Venuesworld. Should Be... held off Manamana down the final run and reach to claim fourth and Smoke on the Water had dropped back one place to sixth. Seriously Bonkers and then SacreBleu, the late starters, rounded off the top eight. DBSC Results here.
Easterns in NYC
This weekend we have the Easterns hosted by the National Yacht Club to look forward to. Between 15 and 20 boats are expected to attend. Six races over the two days are planned under the watchful eye of none other than Jack Roy - the latest forecast is saying breeze on so great racing is practically guaranteed! Entry is available online via the NYC site or for those who prefer the retro feel, paper entries are good too. On Saturday after sailing, there will be many, many pints consumed in the bar of the National (a big screen has been arranged to show the match), bar food will be served all evening, and we would encourage those SBers not racing to come along and join in the banter too...
