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2007 Nationals results Nationals Weston Cat Open Report added 5 Nov 2007Open Meetings 2007 New boat for sale Nationals Video added
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############################################################################################# Weston Cat Open 4-5 November 2006 Twenty four catamarans entered the open meeting at Weston. This was a disappointing turnout but reasonable considering the weather forecast. For once the weather forecast was absolutely spot on and there was no wind to speak of until after the final race on Sunday. The twenty four included six A class and three Unicorns. The boats sailed out towards the start line for a delayed start after a wayward zephyr suggested there might be some wind. The race officer had laid the start line down tide of the club which enabled everyone to eventually reach the start. Race 1 John Wade (Silent Wings) made a brilliant start and got well away. Julius Mach still trying to come to grips with the handling of his new acquisition (Erato) crossed the start line last and some five minutes after Wade letting Iain Rogers (Original Sin) get well away. Wade ignored the two Unicorns behind him (probably never saw them after the start) and concentrated on mixing it with the A class boats. Mach had the advantage that there was nobody who could possibly overtake him whilst Rogers could get despondent as he worked his way towards the back of the fleet. Both Rogers and Mach easily drifted well away from the Dart 18s which really were not suited to conditions of gusting 1 mph. Mach closed steadily on Rogers and was only 77 seconds behind Rogers (8 boat lengths) at the end of the first lap. Mach then swept past Rogers to complete the second lap just inside the time limit with Rogers well outside the limit. Unfortunately for Mach the race officer had taken pity on the tail enders and had finished the two Unicorns and the Dart 18s after just one lap. He had not sounded the hooter because the Unicorns were crossing the line in company with the Youth fleet who, sailing a shorter course, were well able to complete a second lap. Wade finished 9th on corrected time, Rogers and Mach were 17th and 18th.
Race 2 This was a much more gentle affair. The beat was still against the tide but now there was a little more tide and, as wind and tide were in the same direction, apparently less wind. The start went much as before except that Mach was not quite so slow off the start line and managed to overtake Rogers about two thirds of the way up the beat. Rounding the windward mark was the critical factor as once in the tide it was just a drift to the finish line. One lap was the most anyone was going to do. Some boats failed to drift in the right direction and were swept past the finish line on the wrong side of the outer distance mark and Wade nearly lost out too, just managing to tack back around the mark with no room to spare. Mach observing this from behind sacrificed downwind drifting speed to line himself up with the finish line and eventually drifted across it. Wade finished 10th Mach was 11th and Rogers failed to finish within the time limit. Mach flagged down a passing RIB and persuaded the driver to tow him back to shore collecting Wade on the way. Another RIB was sent out to find Rogers.
Race 3 was abandoned.
Sunday and Race 4. Nothing very much different about this race except that there was a barely perceptible breeze and two laps were achieved. The A class were not so dominant in this race but Wade still sailed away from the other Unicorns with Rogers and Mach this time swopping places several times before Rogers gained an advantage on the last downwind leg to finish in front of Mach. Wade was 14th, Rogers was 17th. and Mach was 19th.
Race 5 The fourth race to be sailed meant that a discard would apply. There was gentle breeze at the start and this time Mach got away with the rest of the fleet with Rogers to leeward but slightly ahead. Wade had fallen asleep and started late, dead last. Rogers maintained his lead over Mach to the windward mark and sailed over to the right hand side of the downwind leg as he had done in the previous race to get ahead of Mach. Unfortunately Mach did not follow him and persisted in drifting / sailing more or less directly downwind and crossed the line ahead of Rogers. Wade followed Mach’s route and closed up on both of them, all three going round the mark in procession. For some reason known only to the race officer the race had not been finished after one lap and so the three Unicorns now quite close to each other set off on the second lap. Mach was directly in front of Rogers and Wade who tacked early to try and find some wind out in the river - only to find more adverse tide. Rogers, who had now slipped further behind Mach, stood on towards the shore to minimise the adverse tide. Meanwhile, Mach got to within 30 yards of the windward mark when the wind gave out but by then the others were some two hundred yard away as Rogers had lost the wind in the less tidal part of the course while Wade had struggled out in the tide. Mach hung around the mark for about twenty minutes before encountering a zephyr chanced a tack and got round. He then hurtled down with the tide and an occasional puff of wind to just complete within the time limit. Mach was 13th, Wade and Rogers failed to finish within the time limit.
Meanwhile Race 6 had been abandoned.
After finishing Mach found a little wind and waved away the RIB that had come to collect him. Mach soon sailed past the last of the towed boats and five minutes later was enjoying himself out on the wire with a hull flying as the wind finally filled in. Those on shore were envious of this one Unicorn clearly having the best sailing of the weekend.
Overall A class cats finished 1st and 2nd and 5th. Unicorns were Wade 14th, Mach 17th, Rogers 20th.
Those Unicorns that stayed away missed some very slow and frustrating drifting. There are four days racing over Easter for the Easter Grand Slam in 2007. The weather is usually a little better – it could not be worse. If you cannot get your boat there contact either Iain Rogers or Julius Mach and they may be able to lend you a boat. Bringing your own sail and possibly tiller would enable you to feel more at home.
Julius Mach (Erato and C’est la vie)
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Weston Catamaran Open 5/6 November 2005 The forecast didn’t look good, in fact it looked like one of those weekends when you lock the doors and curl up in front of a warm fire: Selsey Bill to Lyme Regis. 24 hour forecast 5 Nov: Nevertheless, I emailed ‘3 boat Rogers’ who immediately replied that he was sailing….so I got up early Saturday morning with the idea I would check the weather and go back to bed. Well, not a good start, I decided to set the alarm on my phone as it’s a lot louder – big mistake, I hadn’t put the clock back the previous weekend so I got woken up at 0500h instead of 0600h. It was raining hard but there was barely enough wind to lift a feather. I checked the landlubbers forecast and they said it was going to be a pleasant but windy day with rain later. Oh well, the boat was already on the trailer so I decided to make the trip down to Weston. I arrived at 0830h in relatively fine weather and after driving in circles around the area for half an hour I finally made it to the club. A few hardy souls were already there, indeed about half a dozen campers were in the field but I couldn’t see Gary (there was no 2 metre height restriction so another excuse is required by the committee!!). However, it looked like the forecast had put a lot of people off. There were only about a dozen visiting boats and the total fleet was only about 30 including the Hobie Youth Fleet (16s and Dragoons). What surprised me was there were 4 Tornadoes fitted out with the full sports rig – some nice looking boats. The catamaran handicap fleet comprised doublehanders:
and singlehanders:
The course was essentially upwind/downwind (boo…hiss…) designed for kite equipped boats and the regatta was using the ISAF handicap ratings. However, we did have a spacer mark offering a very short reach, and a leeward gate, whereupon the cats could round to port or starboard, and hopefully reduce the chaos that we experience when five or six cats fighting with their kites try to round at the same time! I quickly rigged the boat and went down to the club for breakfast, a well earned bacon and egg butty. Iain joined me, as enthusiastic as ever, wondering if he should use his storm sail. I guess it is typical that when you have lots of time you are late at the start……..I hadn’t put my sail up before the briefing like many others as the wind was filling by the minute and had already reach a high F4. When I did, I found the kicker had somehow twisted with the lines interlocked. There was no way I could sail without being able to flatten the sail so I set about trying to untangle the mess. Three attempts later with all the cats long gone I finally got it sorted. I then got stuck in the club racing queue for launching as I watched the first race start a quarter of a mile away. But at least there were folk to give a hand so I jumped aboard and headed as fast as possible for the start. Race 1 – F4-5 WNW I just got across the line before the start for the next class so was 5 minutes late. I resigned myself to a last place and started to focus on getting the boat going well, difficult without anyone to sail against. It was really odd, I couldn’t get a decent sail shape and the mast was really hard to rotate. I finally realised the problem – I had left the lowers on full from when I put the mast up…..dooooh. Once that was eased off the sail flattened as I could set up for good drive without being overpowered. Meanwhile Iain was well in the thick of things and seemed to be going very well – he likes a good blow. The A class was also going well but looking like it was beginning to get overpowered. My race ended earlier than I expected, the lead Tornado shot passed me on the downwind leg of my 2nd lap and finished. As it was a Grand Prix system I also had to finish – couldn’t have been more than 25 minutes racing. However, maybe that was my salvation since I would get an average lap time awarded and the wind had been strengthening throughout the race. Iain relished the conditions, finishing 7th just behind the A Class on handicap. Race 2 – F5-6 W They decided to increase the number of laps to four as the wind approached 20kts with gusts into the mid 20’s. The A class had gone ashore (turned out to be a ripped tramp). Iain and I got a reasonable start, I was slightly downwind but with Iain boxed in by the Stealth acting like a Dyson, I was able to open up a gap and tack with room to spare. An interesting aspect of the racing was a fleet of shellfish dredgers pounding back and forth right across the middle of the course. I got some choice words when I sliced in front of one, I thought a few metres was plenty of clearance as I was going 3 times their speed!!! I felt the boat was going really well, I was almost holding a Spitfire and was ahead of the Stealth. But the lead couple of Tornadoes were really flying, an awesome sight downwind with the windward hull flying, massive spray from the leeward hull and more canvas up than a basketball pitch. However, it meant I was overtaken on the downwind leg on my 3rd lap and had to finish. Iain had been battling with the elements and was forced to gybe to avoid an F18 when the crossbar parted company from one of the rudders as he crossed the line, it resulted in a nosedive and spectacular capsize. However, he soon had her back upright but was forced to retire from the next race. Race 3 – F6-7 WSW The wind had really strengthened with gusts near 30kts and rapid windshifts of 15 to 20 deg. This was going to be exciting. They decided to increase the duration to 5 laps…….still this shouldn’t take long, the downwind legs were going to be ‘back of the beam’ stuff. I locked down both the main shrouds a notch to depower the rig and decided to leave the traveller a few inches off centre when beating. I set the sail as flat as I could. I had a reasonable start and the boat felt superb. She was slicing through the waves at fantastic speed and when the hard gusts hit I could luff up and keep the speed without letting the mainsheet off (most of the time!!). The downwind legs were awesome, you could barely see with spray going everywhere, the lee bow was dangerously low, occasionally disappearing as we sliced through the bigger waves. On some occasions I had to sheet in and bear away to try and break the laminar flow and share the load more evenly on the bows but with so much boat speed the gybes were straight forward. I started getting cramp in my hands on the 4th lap so this time I wasn’t too unhappy that the lead Tornado edged slowly passed me on the windward leg. It was quite interesting, he only gained about 200m on the windward leg but completed the downwind leg as I gybed half way down the course (what a difference the kite makes). Now that was a race to remember. Coming ashore also proved entertaining, the wind was directly onshore and the spring tide was smashing against the banks of the river with only a narrow slip to land on, not much space for error. Quite a few were taking their mains down before coming in under mast power. I came in close to shore, put her to windward and quickly raised both rudders. I shuffled up to the bow and let the wind take me in where ‘3 boats Rogers’ was ready to catch the bucking beast. Phew, that was a day to remember. Having had a shower and something to eat I checked the forecast for Sunday. Torrential rain and gale force winds. Much to Iain’s disgust I decided now was the time to pack the boat up and head home. So I helped him set up Unicorn number 2 (or was it number 3) ready for Sunday in case he couldn’t repair the rudder. The results were pretty good considering the type of course and H/C system used. Iain got a very creditable 7th in the first race with an 11th and a DNC to hold 11th overall. I got an 8th, 9th and 8th to hold 7th overall only headed by 2 Tornadoes, 3 F18’s and a Spitfire. I was amazed by the 8th in the first race but disappointed by the results of race 2 and 3 but the timing showed that for race 3 I’d have captured 5th if I’d been 30s faster. According to Iain, Sunday’s racing was postponed then abandoned with a breeze of 26 knots (F6) gusting up to 37 knots (F8). Although Original Sin was ready to go, Iain reluctantly decided not to take her out for a blast, but instead accompanied Julius Mach, on a reefed Dart 16. Good old polypropylene boat got the bows up planing and leaping from crest to crest with the whole thing making a resonating hum of progressively increasing frequency. Reaching back was a bit like offshore power boat racing, slamming against every breaking crest, and timing one's breathing to inhale air rather than water. Incredible… We would like to thank Weston SC for persevering despite atrocious conditions and giving us a limited but extremely exciting series of races
John Wade 1092 Silent Wings
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