Ardleigh Winter Series starts Sun Oct 16th
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Hopefully we’ll have quite a few OKs sailing at Ardleigh in the Winter Series starting soon. Two races back to back in the morning with a 10.30am start. The Under 500 club will be up and running within the OK fleet and looks like being well subscribed. Come and keep yourself up to speed over the winter – all welcome. We’ll post a weekly update of results etc.
If you can’t make the series then you can sign in as a guest for the odd day if you bring your boat.
Andy
Nine OKs entered for the Winter Series starting today. Flat calm when we arrived but after half an hour a force 1 filled in. The racing was dominated by Will Turner in his Hein 2045. Will won both races easily. John Ball sailed well to finish second in both races. Trevor Child sailing his newly acquired 1689 stayed ahead of Andy Turner for most of the first race, just missing out on the beat to the finish. In the second race the first three OKs failed to notice a change of position of the wing mark so had to mount a frantic recovery. Tim Hurst sailed a good race to be close to the leading bunch. Matt Cox was sailing an OK for the first time, borrowing Lee Child’s Seamark Nunn, to finish both races in extremely tricky conditions with the wind shifting by forty degrees at times and also fading away to nothing, only to reappear from a different direction. Hopefully we’ll get a nice force 4 next week.
Andy
5 OKs on the start line for the second Sunday – we seem to have lost Matt Cock and John Ball somewhere. In race 1 Trevor Child was first round the windward mark in his newly acquired 1689, chased by Will Turner and Andy Turner with Paul Constable and Tim Hurst getting poor starts. At the wing mark Will decided he was leaving the mark to starboard and we decided to round the opposite way. Will retired in high dudgeon (again). This left Andy in the lead with Paul and Trevor chasing hard down the run. On the next shifty beat Paul sailed it perfectly and into the lead and pulled out a 50m lead down the next reach, never to be seen again. Andy chased hard and closed the gap a little but couldn’t get back on terms. Trev came in third and Tim 4th.
In race 2 Will made an excellent start and was first round the windward mark closely followed by Andy, then Trevor. Paul made another poor start but again played the shifts expertly and pulled through Andy and then closed right up on Will’s transom. Team racing tactics ensued, with Will maintaining his lead on the beats but appearing vulnerable on the down wind legs. At the finish Will won with Paul second, Andy third, Trevor fourth and Tim again 5th. Any OK sailor that wants to come and join us would be very welcome.
Andy
Matt Cock promises to be back next Sunday in 1885. Paul church must be making an appearance soon too or he’ll forget how to do it…! Where are you Paul?
hi lee to scared to get back in an ok in case i break something again never did work out how you do it anyway,
sold my boat but hopefully will be back on water soon,
i will pop up and see you all in the next couple of weeks
regards paulSunday Oct 30th. 5 OKs on the start line. In race 1 Andy Turner just got round the first mark ahead of Paul Constable and Trevor Child, with Matt Cock a bit further back and Tim Hurst examining his centreboard with the top pulled off. Down the run Paul came storming past Andy and into the lead. Andy was then forced to carry out repairs at the gybe mark as the mainsheet block came off the traveller carr (Harken gear!). Trevor was having problems with Solos and a Supernova at the gybe mark and lost contact with Paul. Andy managed to get back into second but finished a good way behind Paul who won the race with Trev third and Matt 4th.
In race 2 Andy again rounded the windward mark first, this time with a good lead, whilst Paul and Trev held off the Solos. Tim was back on the water sailing Pete Turner’s boat. After a rather uneventful race Andy finished first, Paul second, Trev third, Tim 4th and Matt 5th. Hopefully Will Turner, John Ball and Paul Church will be with us next Sunday to spice up the racing.
Andy
7 OKs on the start line today. Good to see Ben sailing Helen Deaves’ old boat. Today Tim managed to get his plate down without pulling the top off since the traveller bolts weren’t bolted through the actual centre plate (if you see what I mean) and had a much better day. Matt was sailing round bow down rather like a submarine since the bow tank had a lot of water in it.
The wind was force 2 for the first race. Andy T reached the windward mark first with a reasonable lead over Trevor Child in 1698 and John Ball in 2100. As the race progressed Paul Constable did his usual trick of progressing through the fleet, enough to come second but not enough to catch Andy. In race 2 the wind was up, gusting force 4 and everyone except John and Andy had a swim, some more than once. Andy was again in the lead at the windward mark, chased by John Ball and Paul Constable. Paul did take the lead after a rubbish gybe from Andy, but was passed again on the run and capsized at the gybe mark. John managed to get into second after a second capsize for Paul. Everyone else finished a long way back – sorry I’m not sure in which order, but still laughing and ready for next week (Will is the OOD).
Andy
Race 1
1st Andy Turner
2nd Paul Constable
3rd John Ball
4th Trev Child
5th Tim Hurst
6th Ben Simpson
7th Matt CockRace 2
1st Andy Turner (0 swims)
2nd John Ball (0 swims)
3rd Paul Constable (2 swims)
4th Ben Simpson (0 swims)
5th Trev Child (1 swim)
6th Tim Hurst (1 swim)
DNF Matt Cock (1 swim under upturned boat to retrieve centreboard!)Thanks for the results Trev – had to dash off at the end yesterday. Maybe the problem with Matt’s boat Dave was not that the centreboard fell out but that it was completely up inside the box and difficult to retrieve when trying to right the boat, especially as there are still some of the older boats with cleated centreboard lines – sometimes up and sometimes down. The centreboard rope(s) need to be free running if there is going to be so much swimming! Someone had told Matt that the plate should be completely up when sailing down the run in a force 4!! (not guilty)
Andy
Someone had told Matt that the plate should be completely up when sailing down the run in a force 4!!
With friends like this he doesn’t need enemies! I hope they remembered to mention that letting the boom right out and easing the kicker a bit is also a very fast way to go down the run!
DaveMatt couldn’t get the board out of the casing – not sure if he was running the ‘Hurst’ bolt or not though!
Great to see Simon Davis coming for the day all the way from Buckinghamshire. I thought it was only me prepared to drive for 2 hours to sail at Ardleigh. Anyway we had 9 OKs on the start line this week on a beatifully warm sunny day with a force 2 blowing from the SE, rather an awkward direction for Ardleigh.
In race 1 Andy Turner pulled out a good lead on the first beat, chased by newcomer Drum Sydenham in a borrowed boat. Andy held on for a couple of laps but Simon Davis pulled his way through the fleet and had a good battle with Andy over the last lap which Simon eventually won. Will Turner managed to get back into third ahead of John Ball but was then overtaken by Paul Constable. Trev sailed a good second half of the race in 1698 to claim 5th place passing John Ball in the process. Drum finished 7th, Mark Earley 8th and Tim Hurst 9th. No swimming this week.
In race 2 John Ball arrived at the “windward” mark first, chased by Paul Constable and Will Turner. Trev, Andy and Simon were spectating at this stage down the run. However Andy pulled up into second on John’s transom on the second beat and Will was last seen playing “Catch of the Day” with a local fisherman and retired. In the end after an incredibly shifty race John held on from Paul to win with Andy third, Simon 4th, Trev 5th, Drum 6th, Tim 7th and Mark 8th.
Andy
Very foggy this morning at Ardleigh. Will was the Race Officer. We waited until the fog had cleared by about 11am but still no wind filled in so no racing today. Very disappointing. Looks promisingly windy for next weekend though and allowed us to do some more repairs on Tim’s mast and for Trevor to discover he had been sailing with a 40 degree rudder with half the blade out of the water, then complaining about the weather helm.
Andy
White horses all over the reservoir today with the wind speed recorded consistently at 35 knots plus in the (many) gusts. Robert Campbell Gray reported as standing on the shore watching at Alton Water. Anyway six OKs ventured forth but most of the rest of the handicap fleet stayed ashore and took pics or eat bacon rolls. Andy T had a good start at the favoured end in race 1 only to be hit by a tremendous gust and ending up going backwards to get out of irons. Pete Turner, in his first sail in this series, shot into the lead followed by Trevor Child and Paul Constable. Tim Hurst lasted until the gybe mark and then spent the next 20 minutes inverted. The wind was so strong it was difficult to pull a capsized boat back up (as we all found out at some stage). Ben wisely decided to have a sail instead of having a race. At the end of the first lap Andy had got himself back into 2nd behind Pete when he got hit by another blast and was blown over despite the main being released completely – getting a bit slow in his old age. Pete disappeared into the distance with all the gybes in regulation and absolutely screaming down the reaches to finish first with Trev Child second, Paul Constable 3rd and Andy T fourth. Ben and Tim were DNF.
Race 2 was equally windy although we had got a bit more used to it. Andy had a good lead at the first mark, chased by Pete, Trevor and Lee Child (who had abandoned his Merlin for Tim’s OK). Unfortunately both Andy and Pete had failed to notice that the OOD had changed the rounding of the leeward mark so we were someway past it before we heard shouts of “to starboard” and had to back and unwind ourselves. This left Andy now 4th, Pete 3rd, Trevor 2nd and Lee in the lead. Pete got through on the next beat but had a fantastic “submarine” on rounding the windward mark. The whole of the bow went down under water at 45 degrees beyond the mast and then popped up going backwards. Miraculously he didn’t capsize and sailed on serenely to win his second race of the day. Trevor had a wipe out on the beat. Andy got past Lee on the last beat to finish second with Lee third and Paul fourth, Trevor 5th.
The wind strength somewhere between last week and this week would be good for next Sunday!
Andy
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