At 0500 the weather forecast was dreadful. Humber, Thames, Dover Force 7 increasing to Force 8 and gale force 9 later. Hmm. Better stay in bed. Looking out of the window at 0800 the wind didn't look too bad.
Sandwiched between the laying up supper the previous evening and the appropriate curry lunch it seemed from the strength of the wind that the man upstairs had already had his Vindaloo the previous evening and the competitors were going to suffer the consequences.
But for once the weather order was listened to and bang on 10.00am the clouds lifted, the wind moderated to about 18 to 25mph from the South West and the sun came out, although the gusts were still strong enough to blow Simon Hills's laser over as he was queuing on the ramp. His rudder and tiller disappeared into the drink, the first ditching of the afternoon. After some anxious minutes the Safety Boat returned from laying the buoys, 5, 6 and 1 all to starboard, and performed a rescue.
Five Enterprises and three Lasers entered for the best of three short races for this event. The first race had a clean start actually at this time of year and with a low sun you can't see the line from the committee box, so an early start may be worth a try! Both the first and second races were shortened to a single lap and the final race was a two lap race.
A tight bunch of dinghies took off with Simon Hills and Terry Dawson slightly ahead of the pack. In the crush around no 6 starboard buoy Simon Hills brushed the stern of Jeremy Whiting and Beverley Beech who were on port, but they acknowledged their error and did a quick 720 before rounding the buoy and reaching across the river to gybe around No5 at the top end of the island.
The run back to the Club was exhilarating, to say the least, the Enterpise helms were practically sitting on their transoms as the Enterprises raced to catch up Simon Hills and Phyl Robin in their Lasers. Ahead, Terry's dinghy rolled and dipped its boom in the river, during a sudden gust, but they recovered and ploughed on. Our new sailors Steve Fleming and Chris Allfrey capsized and were still busy baling out on the beach as the fleet roared past on the second lap.
During the second race, as the Enterprises approached No1 buoy in a line, goosewinging, James Sinclair Taylor in the windward boat closed on the other two dinghies so Jeremy's dinghy ended up sandwiched between James and John Chick. In the exchange of interpretation of the rules Jeremy's main sheet looped itself around John, who managed to pull it off and still stay aboard and maintain his rights. Jeremy's dinghy affected by the sudden brake shot to windward and narrowly missed James, only to find Phyl Robin returning to the start line on port. Phyl tried a crash tack, but not soon enough, the wayward main sheet then hooked Phyl's rudder and capsized the Laser. Another 720.
One of the Enterprises appeared to abandon the racing for an extended visit to Chiswick Eyot while the three lasers demonstrated the art of planeing a laser. At one stage Clive Kitson's Laser was in serious danger of breaching the PLA speed limit.
In the final race, Terry Dawson and Richard Wood shot ahead, closely followed by Jeremy and Beverley with John Chick and Liz St Clair-Legg hot on their tail. Unfortunately during the beat to No6 John's kicker snapped and he capsized.
Mike and Jean Wilczynski were kept busy hovering over the capsized dinghies, but none required assistance, despite, in one case, a capsize in every race, they deserved a medal for persistence.
This was Terry Dawson's last race at the club in his much loved Veloce. He showed why he will be missed having given a master class in sailing on the Hammersmith reach in the most testing of conditions.
The sailors repaired to the bar to share accounts of derring-do and watch the presentation and demolish a vindaloo lamb special (without the excessive heat) prepared by Wendy. To the delight of everyone Terry Dawson won this, the last race before he leaves us and heads for New Zealand. A near perfect set of results of 1st 2nd 1st in one race beating Simon Hills in his Laser by 1 second on corrected time shows how competitive and tight the racing was. Richard Wood, Terry's crew, was thrilled to have won his first race and Simon Hills was delighted to have won the Heffalump which he claimed his children would adore.
Anyway with all three races duly completed, no breakages or protests it was fitting that the club president, John Herbert, was on hand to present the prizes.
A fun event to warm you up!
Yesterday there was so little wind the disconsolate sailors rummaged around the undercrofts tidying up instead. By Sunday morning the wind had increased but was easterly, Force 2-3. Phyl Robin had little choice but to set a sausage course5S, 3S and 1S With a Spring tide in full flow experienced sailors knew it was going to be a hard beat back to the start line.
Nine dinghies entered and seven of them raced over the start line on a run, two dinghies were still struggling to get off the pontoon, and one of those spent the next half an hour trying to start.
Chris Crosland was the first to reach No 5 buoy, set half-way down the island, but such was his enthusiasm he hit it and allowed a small space for Martin Dixon, crewed by Beverley Beech, to sneak past. But their triumph was short lived. Even though it was blowing old socks on some parts of the river, by the end of the island there was very little wind at all (very odd as the wind was meant to be blowing up the river). Eventually, after a lot of changes of position (and sailing past the same reed bed half a dozen times) Hugh Kemlo got past and began to extend his lead, to such an extent that no-one got anywhere near enough to threaten it for the rest of the race.
Jeremy Whiting took out a valiant Catherine Baudinette for some helming practice. They bravely battled with the elements, and the tiller, most of the time Catherine and Jeremy won, but the elements got the better of them off the island, so they had capsize practise as well, although the services of Chris St John and Nicola Pyne in the Safety Boat were not needed.
Meanwhile, battles were taking place among the Enterprise sailors. John Chick, crewed by Nick Wilson, had an early battle with James Sinclair-Taylor, crewed by Gill Kerr, but by the fourth lap James escaped and John then had a battle with Martin Dixon. Short tacking near the bank to get out of the tide is exhausting, one slight mistake and dinghy can take the lead. There was lot of excited shouting for water and starboard and in the end Martin Dixon wore them down and crossed the finishing line in fourth position.
Afterwards, everyone headed for the Club for Hugh Kemlo to be presented with the Papadum Plate and for Clive Kitson to receive the Heffalump.
by Beverley Beech
Copyright © London Corinthian Sailing Club, 18 Nov 2001