2007 Parhelion Autumn Series
The Parhelion autumn yacht racing series is run by the Portsmouth Sailing Club, with races in the Eastern Solent, off Portsmouth and in Hayling bay.
Race 5 report, Saturday 13th October 2007
Crew : Phil, Darrell, Barry, Phil B, Joe
One More Knot takes line honours by over 4 minutes
This weeks race was a departure from the usual 2 race format. Instead we were due to have a single race to visit the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in Fishbourne at the mouth of the Wootton Creek on the Isle of Wight.
The discussion over breakfast was of needing to doing well to maintain our place in the series. But that was only if we had a race at all! We left the berth at 9am as usual and soon found the start line being setup off the Haslar wall. The breeze was building, now nearly 2 knots!
After a short postponed, the wind filled in a little, temporarily blowing 6 knots before dropping off again.
The course set was a simple but effective one, up to Gleeds and then a run down to Motherbank. Both fleets, ORC and Club, were to start together. A quick check of the tides was required, very important in a light breeze and on spring tides!
However, the startline was a bit unconventional, set between Vail Williams and the committee boat. There was some debate about which way we should start because the line was almost pointing at Gleeds. However, after clarification this was resolved, an upwind start, with Gleeds off the committee boat end.
In the light airs, the fleet circled the committee boat and line area very closely. There line was very strongly biased to the committee boat. With on 20 seconds to go, One More Knot crossed from course side to behind the line, on port. Probably not the best plan as we saw the approaching fleet on Starboard. However, we weren't alone, we followed Xtrovert from the IRC fleet, who was also on port. Xtrovert gybed behind Rhapsody. We had to wait a little longer and elected to tack behind Concerto.
We were mid tack when the starting gun went. Concerto had bore off to go down the line to avoid being over, leaving us some space. We came hard on the 4 knots of breeze immediately and were the closest boat to the committee boat by far.
Catch 22 (IRC) had the best start, just in front of Concerto. One More Knot was almost last across the line, but as it turns out where we crossed the line was very important.
To get to Gleeds the fleet needed to tack promptly onto port. However those further down the line couldn't tack until the fleet above them had tacked.
One More Knot's track in red
Rhapsody's track in green
One More Knot's position near committee boat paid dividends becasue we could tack first and were only just behind Catch 22. The rest of the fleet blocked each other.
The course out to Gleeds was then very fetchable, however occassionally we were pushed from our track by a header. The sails were tweeked for speed, not height! Xtrovert (IRC) seemed to be heading off on a different course and had to put in a tack to make the mark. Both Rhapsody and Just In Time had a good leg, no doubt the extra power of their #1's helping compared to our #2.
Just In Time made some good ground on this leg and managed to be the first around Gleeds in the club fleet. She hoisted the kite and set off towards North Sturbridge (half way down the run) on course that was high of the motherbank finishing mark, but it did allow her to put the pole forward to keep some boat speed.
One More Knot was next to round Gleeds. After thinking briefly about gybing to stay in the shallow area down to Gilkicker to avoid the worst of the tide, we elected to follow Just In Time as the tide wasn't running that strongly. Rhapsody were also in the shout and as we sailed downwind, but it became obvious that as we all followed all the same path One More Knot was loosing out. By the time Rhapsody had got level we decided we had to try something different.
One More Knot's behind Just In Time and Rhapsody
So we elected to run deeper, which helped our relative performances and OMK slowly crept back into the fight. Eventually we found ourselves looking at the front of Just In Time's spinnaker, a good sign, OMK did well and by the time we were halfway down the long run, near N. Sturbridge, OMK was only a few boat lengths behind the IRC boats Catch 22 and Xtrovert who were having their own ding dong.
Looking backwards up the fleet, we could see Just In Time followed by Rhapsody, then some way back Concerto, Trumble Two (IRC) and at the back was Total Obsession Too. What were they doing way back there??? Confessions Rick, Emma, Claire ....? C'mon, spill the beans, something about the start line I think.
By running deeper, One More Knot managed to open up the gap on Just In Time and Rhapsody. Most of the fleet were performing the downwind gybing antics that OMK has been known for. However, our new lightweight 2S spinnaker from North was doing the business better by running deeper. It doesn't work very well with the pole forward, but with the pole a bit further back its obviously on the pace.
One More Knot's track in red
Rhapsody's track in green (sadly, the plot stops part way through)
As we approached the finish line, we were aware of the tide that had now turned and was helping the fleet. Our thoughts were about being in the right place should the wind fail.
As One More Knot is approaches her gybe the others are now behind
We were following the IRC boat Catch 22 and watched them gybe. We continued a little further before gybing into the line.
One More Knot took the Club Class line honours in just over 1 hour 31 minutes. The next club fleet boats to cross the line was a bit of a surprise. We had been watching them to try to work out how we had done.
Total Obsession Too were the come back kids! Unbelievably Just In Time (on starboard) and Total Obsession Too (on port) were very close and closing fast. We thought that this could be interesting! Total Obsession Too ducked Just In Time's transom. In doing so, TOT's speed surged and she stalled JIT's kite. A classic downwind racing move, right on the line. The two boats finished within a whisker of each other, some 4 minutes behind OMK. From where we were, we couldn't tell who had crossed first. We noted the times and watched the rest of the fleet finish. Rhapsody finished next, some 6 minutes after OMK, followed by Concerto at the tail end of the Club fleet, some 7 and a half minutes after OMK. Concerto's apparently leisurely pace was however good enough to win on handicap by over a minute.
From Rhapsody
Another forecast of light wind, which proves to be all too accurate. The committee boat is near to Vail Williams which will be the ODM for the start. We check the course boards and decide that they are in the wrong order and a quick radio call to the committee boat results in them being corrected. The course is a simple one; after last week's course error on our part that's a relief! It's a beat to Gleeds then a run to the finish at Motherbank. The line is highly skewed and the committee boat is a lot nearer to Gleeds than the ODM. The wind is very light making timing and manoeuvring difficult. We finish too near the ODM at the gun and have to sail for about 3 minutes on starboard tack away from the windward mark before we have room to tack onto port. We can now set off in the right direction. Boat speed is now faster at SOG of about 4 knots and we rapidly overhaul most of the boats to leeward of us. Catch 22 has established a long lead over the rest of the fleet and rounds the mark ahead of JIT and OMK. We round next and hoist the spinnaker with a bear-away set. We follow the boats ahead which are heading over towards Ryde. Ten minutes later we have caught up with OMK who then decides to sail more directly down wind while we maintain our higher course behind JIT. We maintain our heading until just past N. Sturbridge buoy and then realise that the boats nearer the mainland are doing much better than we are and we see that Concerto who was a long way behind has caught up a lot. We gybe and head out into the middle, all the while sailing quite high to maintain a reasonable boat speed. Three more gybes and we get to finish 4th over the water in the club fleet, having been overtaken by TO2 near the finish. We think we are close enough to JIT and TO2 to beat them on handicap and we know that Concerto was close enough behind to beat us. As for OMK; it's too close to say without the exact timings.
From Concerto
Concerto had a reasonable start this Saturday in the light airs and we tacked onto port as soon as possible to head for Gleeds. The tide was still heading to the East a little and this allowed us to sail slightly freer, concentrating on speed rather than pointing. Unfortunately it wasn’t long before the light conditions proved to be less than ideal for our more traditionally designed boat and the rest of the fleet were soon leaving us behind. Like most of the fleet we just made it to Gleeds without further tacking and soon launched the large spinnaker – time to catch up!
We initially headed off on port and went out into the tide in the hope that it was going slack, we seemed to catch up a little and I must thank Banana-man-Ben for his concentration on the kite. Once we were getting toward the south side of the main channel the wind was starting to get very patchy and we gybed onto starboard and sailed with the wind approximately 35 degrees off the stern. We then did a final gybe back onto port and crossed the line.
It was interesting to compare our tactics to those of TO2 who seemed to do the direct course from Gleeds to the finish line. We were alongside them early on the run but by the end they were around 4-5 minutes ahead. Clearly the Typhoon is a faster boat on the water so it is difficult to take a conclusion from this.
I believe that OMK were approximately 8 minutes in front of us, TO2 5 minutes and Rhapsody 4 minutes ahead so it will be interesting to see how close we are once the PSC team finish with their calculators.
Lunch in the Ryl Victoria YC after sailing was very pleasant and we hope that this will become a regular part of the series.
Replay the race here
Replay One More Knot's GPS track here
Also includes Rhapsody's track
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The fleet dropped sails and then raced into Wootton Creek for places on the Royal Victoria Yacht Club's new pontoon, of which they are rightly very proud. One cruising visitor commented "it was quiet in here a few minutes ago!" as the fleet descended, tied up and disappeared into the club house for a bite to eat, a pint and some banter.
After lunch Phil did some dodgy sums on a scrap of paper, using a phone for a calculator and his records of the finishing times. These unofficial results put Concerto out in front with One More Knot and Rhapsody being separated by just 1 second. Having seen some official timing figures, some minor discrepancies reduced the gap to a potential dead heat. This created a sense of excitement on the day and we'd have to wait for the results. In hindsight, the unofficial figures hid some calculation error and I think the real result will be much more clear cut, but it made for good banter.
As for the RVYC, this delightful club showed us some great hospitality and it was great to come here for our first time. I'm sure we will visit again soon. Care will always be needed for deeper draft boats and those boats that can't take the bottom. Having said that, a visit for a couple of hours on the top of a spring tide is possible for boats drawing 2m.