This was to be part of the Seavolution Winter Series, but a combination of the B14 fleet's legendary reluctance to do anything other than sail in a hurry and the popularity of this limited-entry event, which forms part of Andy Rice's "Sail Juice Global Warm Up" series meant that only two boats were able to enter, with even Mark Barnes, series organiser, failing to secure a place. So it was that just 749 (Olly and Gareth) and 766 (Barry and Al) made their was to Northampton SC on Saturday 28th January.
We turned up in good time on Saturday, having taken the "direct" route from Grafham. I left Barry to unstrap the boat and strip the covers off whilst I went to deal with the vital tasks of handing in the registration form and fetching bacon rolls.
Rigging was dealt with swiftly (perhaps too swiftly), so we wandered over to the club house for teas and chat- the non-assy fleets would be racing before us, so we had plenty of time. Several familiar faces from B14 were around, mainly sailing Merlins. Olly and Gareth used the time to head off to find someone to nail the exhaust back onto Olly's car.
The wind wasn't exactly enticing as we watched the hard-fought symmetric fleet going five abreast round the gybe marks of their M-course, but we got ready and headed out as they finished. Getting clear of the stragglers, we hoisted the kite to discover I'd somehow rigged the spinnaker sheets around the "outside" (as I said, too swiftly). Untied the knot, handed the sheet to Barry, went forward and rethreaded and retied all before we got to the slowly-approaching opposite shore. Phew.
Race 1
Our start wasn't superb, with 749 starting in clearer air and closer to the line at the gun. They consequently led round the windward mark, but we (after remembering the spreaded mark) had reasonable pace down wind and were soon alongside them. Having missed the assymetric breifing briefing, Olly was keen to to gybe and go throught the start/finish down wind. I'd said to him ashore that the RO had requested that we don't do this, but he'd got it into his that we had to do it.
On 766 we held our course, eventually gybing a short way above the layline for the leeward gate. 749 gybed too, but, passing behind us, went high to go through the start/finish line.
This gave 766 a rather large lead in our private battle, but a series of tactical errors (such as getting suckered into the tempting lift up the shore on the right hand side of the course) saw 749 gain back ground on us.
Approaching the final leeward gate, both B14s had to take avoiding action for boats coming upwind (though some of these were imaginary). 749 had slipped just ahead, when 766 decided to take a last minute dive for the starboard gate mark rather than the planned port end. Everything seemed to be going OK on the drop when suddenly the deck went to rather a steep angle and I slid into the water- at this time all I could see was spinnaker.
749 finished, on handicap, 20th, just behind the 49er and the lone 29er who sailed the course correctly, with the highest placed "fast" assymetric being Andy Rice, in 10th in his Musto. 766 came 23rd, having lost three minutesto 749 on elapsed time righting, with only a Vareo and a gaggle of navigationally-challenged 29ers behind.
Race 2.
We'd been rather hurried out onto the water as the double-hander (symmetric and non-kite) fleet had been badly behaved and so everything was running a bit behind schedule and the sun was getting low...
At the start, 749 was up by the committee boat, and we (766) were inexplicably a distance beind the line, downwind of the main pack who were bumping into each other after a 400 attempted to squeeze in at the pin end comittee boat and tacked to port, causing a lot more tacks. We crossed the line passing through the shoting and chaos, but were a distance down on 749, and we seemed to more or less pace them to the end, not dropping nor catching up. The light wind meant a battle to search for a bit of pressure. Jostling occured at marks as everyone attempted to make sure they went the shortest distance possible, and the moths were up and down all over the place cursing the conditions.
At the finish, 766 was still about a minute behind 749, finishing 26th versus 22nd due to the 29ers having discovered the correct course. For reference, the Musto (sailing on the same PY) finished 13th and the 49er 19th.
Overall? It was a fun event, and well managed given the large number of boat decending on a fairly small patch of water. 749 took 20th, and 766 26th, out of a fleet of 29. We'll probably be back, we'd hope that next time the rest of you won't be so slow signing up- it would be nice to have more B14s to race.