Last Sunday June 5, with the wind from the north east at a brisk force four breeze in warm sunshine saw the Officer of the Day (OOD) duty boat Mallard on station for the second race of the Bramley Series.
With the discovery during the previous day’s race of the missing western turning mark a special course was set. Taking the fleet to the East Turning mark off Camber; South to the Fairway Buoy then back to the start (just South of the river mouth) with a final ‘sausage’ leg to Camber and back.
The start was uneventful and all boats were away on a close beat toward Camber, with the fastest boat in the fleet, Roxanne, rounding first and immediately hoisting her symmetrical spinnaker on a broad reach down to the Fairway Buoy. Pursued by Mystic Sky and Helena Anne. The latter setting the new Asymmetric (irregular shaped) Spinnaker. At the Fairway Buoy, Roxanne dropped her spinnaker in good time whereas Helena Anne thought she might carry it on to the next leg and gybed it round the mark. The new course proved too ‘shy’ (close to the wind) for this sail and it had to be recovered quickly. It may have got a bit wet!
The race continued with wind steadily freshening Roxanne crossed the line first. Astern of her an interesting tussle was developing as Helena Anne, once again under spinnaker, was catching Mystic Sky (sailing under plain sail).
Mystic Sky chose to try to luff up the overtaking boat, deliberately sailing a higher course in an attempt to slow and collapse the sails of the Helena Ann. The delay was short lived and Helena Anne, a faster boat, powered past her. The well sailed Limbo Girl finished next followed by Gemma.
There is a lesson to be learned here and that is, in cruiser racing (where each boat is given a handicap which converts into a time allowance) the main competition is the clock. The result is calculated by correcting the actual elapsed time according to handicap to give a corrected finished time.
The first three boats in today’s race were just 21 seconds apart on corrected time, after a one hour race. It was a close race, which clearly demonstrates that each boat’s actions, at any time on the racecourse, can affect the final results. It is worth noting therefore that Mystic Sky lost the race by just one second!
The final result was: 1st Roxanne 1 hr 1 min 3 secs, 2nd Mystic Sky 1 hr 1 min 4 secs, 3rd Limbo Girl 1 hr 1 min 20 secs
Photos: RHSC members