Maylandsea Bay Open Winter Series & ‘Karma’

Races one and two got under way under the most evil looking skies that the Maylanders had seen for some time and over the summer period following a hearty layer of snow at Easter they have not been spoilt for wicked skies, high winds or no wind at all, dissolving any real feeling of club summer racing.

21 boats from 4 different clubs came to the start line with a very keen start being made by Malcolm and Tony (Fireball) Laurence (Finn) and Jacko and Lorna (Merlin Rocket) The wind 0.2 to 1 knot from the North-to-North East on a soft incoming tide put the fleet in touch with its innermost ‘Karma’ with the helm’s Yins and Yangs stretched to the point of sense of humour failure. But I am pleased to report that the rules of sailing and fair play stood up well (no waves! no Phantoms) especially for Jim and he, being a gent, thinks Rock and Roll is strictly for dancing.
Malcolm and Tony sailed a brilliant windward leg out through the Bay showing excellent boat speed and concentration beating the odds loaded against the high wetted area that the Fireball supports. The windward rounding of Lawling point was against the tide in a miserable half a knot of breeze and ended their hopes of making any real time against the Finns, finishing 4th.
Jacko and Lorna could not make the necessary time required to take out the Finn either, but sailing a careful race, not including farming or shifting weed with the foils, took line honours to finish 2nd.
Laurence sailed well, sailing a good opening leg and rounding Lawling point well and hanging on to the lead boats on the down hill legs, won the first race and beating fellow club Finn sailor Keith Fedi, who it must be said was sleeping at the start of the race but pulled back to finish 3rd.
Race 2 started with a little less tide and a little more wind. The start was banked to rights by the new slimmed down Clive Tarling sailing a Laser. It was good to see Clive rounding the Spit Mark in the inside position and looking cool and in control with the Merlins and fireballs overlapped to the outside. As the fleet passed the north salting point Lorna poured out some verbal encouragement to Jacko as the rudder came adrift from the transom whilst tacking. This was a little test set by Jacko to see if Lorna could move with out knowing why! As it turned out she could, but she can use an assortment of words (all judgemental) on Jacko’s ability to surprise, without warning or reason! A crew’s skills and tolerance to ‘up the pace’ and improvise is needed to secure boat trim without the loss of speed through the water. A tip: some time as a helm it is better to listen with your mouth tightly shut, rather than make un-thought through excuses on boat management.
Luckily all competing boats make some errors, the boat making lest errors can some times be lucky, Jacko and Lorna put the marbles back on the tray and sailed smoothly to finish 1st.
Keith making a good start and sailing well narrowly lost the race to finish 2nd.
Malcolm and Tony again betting the odds in a Fireball on a light airs day put some spinnaker work in and made up good time down wind to finish 3rd.
Clive having won the start sailed well to finish 4th and is leading the Laser fleet.
Next race day 16/11/08 at 12:20 it is not too late to qualify in this series with six races to come.
Overall results
1st Merlin Rocket Jacko and Lorna 3 points
2nd Finn Keith Fedi 5 points
3rd Fireball Malcolm and Tony 7 points
4th GP14 Dave and Kate 10 points
5th Laser Clive Tarling 11 points