Inland Championships

BASS Sailing club 30th/31st July 2011

The Streaker Inlands were held at Bassenthwaite SC on the weekend of July 30th-31st, the first weekend of the club’s annual regatta week. 23 Streakers attended, along with about 200 other dinghies of various classes, so it was quite a spectacle and it’s amazing how well the Streaker event fitted into the regatta programme.

The breeze took a while to fill in on the Saturday and, after a postponement, only one race instead of the scheduled two was possible for the Streakers. Dave Smith made an excellent start and he and Alan Gillard pulled away from the rest of the fleet. Eventually Alan took the lead and finished first, with Dave second, while a tight group of boats were battling for 3rd in the light, shifty conditions. In the end Peter Tyerman took 3rd spot, ahead of Peter Coghill and Chris Wright.

The RO announced that 3 races would be sailed on the Sunday and so everyone was ready for a prompt start that morning. Again the wind looked unpromising – large calm patches were clearly visible on the lake when viewed from the club but the RO had taken the committee boat southwards, well down the lake, and reported back that there was a good breeze down there. The Streakers and all the other boats headed south and soon found the breeze, plenty of it in fact. Some people were regretting that they hadn’t dressed for such cool, breezy conditions! Bassenthwaite certainly seemed to be a lake of two halves – the warm, calm north and the chilly south!

In the racing schedule, the Streakers were the 8th class to start and so spent plenty of time watching others beating into the breeze. But just after our start the wind played tricks and died in the middle of the course. Alan had made a good start but he and all the others who had headed right were now struggling while those on the left were still making reasonable progress. At the first mark Veronica Falat was narrowly ahead of Dave Smith. The race consisted of one lap of a large course and, having completed the long windward leg, the fleet now had a long run northwards. Veronica maintained her lead but Alan caught up with Dave by the leeward mark and then the two of them had a good battle on the final windward leg to the line. Veronica chose to cover Dave, which was a mistake because it was Alan who played the shifts to advantage and gained the win with Veronica 2nd, Dave 3rd and Peter Tyerman 4th.

Everyone sailed back to the club for a brief lunch break and then returned to the racing area. The breeze was good in the afternoon, mostly force 4 in that southern half of the lake. The course for race 3 was again one lap but bigger than before, with a very long beat to the first mark. Alan rounded first, comfortably ahead, with Dave 2nd and Veronica and Matt Jenkins vying for 3rd place. On the long downwind legs Veronica pulled clear of Matt, and these positions were held to the finish.

All the other classes returned to shore but the Streakers stayed afloat for the 4th and final race. Alan kept us company until the start but then disappeared off, having won the championship and now ready to resume duties as class chairman and get the prize-giving sorted. This time it was Matt Jenkins who led the way up the first beat with 5 or 6 boats crossing tacks behind him. At the mark Matt rounded just ahead of Dave who then drew level with him on the run, followed by Veronica and Matt Whitfield. This course led the fleet right back into the northern half (the light and shifty half) of the lake and the breeze started to cause some problems. At one point Matt Whitfield and Peter Tyerman both managed to overtake Veronica, only to run out of wind as she caught a zephyr and overtook Dave. She and Matt Jenkins then rounded the last mark together and sailed side by side on a fetch to the finish, Matt taking the win by half a boat’s length. That 2nd place gave Veronica 2nd place overall; she tied on points with Dave but beat him in that last race – which was bad luck for Dave as he had been more consistent throughout the weekend.

The winner and runner-up for the Silver Fleet prize were Matt Whitfield and Chris Wright. They tied on points for 7th place overall but Matt got it on countback.