2012 Parhelion Spring Series

Skippers, crew and club officers -- your contributions are needed, reports, GPS tracks and photos

The Parhelion yacht racing series is run by the Portsmouth Sailing Club, with races in the Eastern Solent, off Portsmouth and in Hayling bay.

One More Knot's skipper reports each race in the series, blow by blow. Some of the other crews and skippers contribute too ... just to give a balanced view!

Spring Parhelion 2012 dates are:


2012 Spring Parhelion Series - Club Fleet Standings

Official results table from the PSC

Rank Boat Name Class Sail No Helm TCF R1
24 Mar		 R2
24 Mar		 R3
31 Mar		 R4
31 Mar		 R5
14 Apr		 R6
21 Apr		 R7
21 Apr		 R8
28 Apr		 R9
28 Apr		 Total
Club Fleet - Sailed: 9    Discards: 3
1 Electra X-99 Mod 9887 Mike Tatersall 0.980 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 DNC 6
2 One More Knot Elan 333 7563T Phil Duff 0.970 3 2 3 3 2 4 1 2 1 11
3 Muscadet de Havelet Contessa 32 5500 Peter Sanderson 0.895 7 4 2 2 4 2 4 3 4 17
4 Widgeon Halberg Rassy 31 5113 Nick Fletcher 0.860 1 5 6 7 3 5 3 7 2 19
5 Just In Time Omega 36 4230T Tony Barnett 0.965 4 3 8 4 5 8 5 5 5 26
6 Scallywag GK 24 215 Ellis Ruddick 0.810 6 7 5 5 8 6 9 4 3 29
7 Crazy Horse Mustang 30 5187 Derek Budden 0.915 DNC DNC 3 8 6 3 6 8 6 32
8 Maggie May MG 27 1148 Andrew Taylor 0.910 5 6 7 6 7 7 7 6 8 37
9 Easy Tiger II Beneteau First 33.7 6655 Chris Fife-Shaw 0.975 DNC DNC 9 9 9 9 8 9 7 51
10 Hobo Hanse 31 Alan Long 0.910 DNC DNC DNC DNC DNC 10 10 DNC DNC 64

Results courtesy of Portsmouth Sailing Club

Race Results

Race Date Class Pos No in Class TCF OTW Time OTW gap to 1st/2nd Corrected gap to 1st/2nd Crew
Parhelion race 1 24/3/2012 3 7 0.970 0:52:29 -5:18 +1:13 Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Richard E, Norman
Parhelion race 2 24/3/2012 2 7 0.970 1:00:41 +6:38 +5:54 Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Richard E, Norman
Parhelion race 3 31/3/2012 3 9 0.970 1:06:20 +4:37 +3:54 Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Glenn, Norman, Hollie, Andy S.
Parhelion race 4 31/3/2012 3 9 0.970 1:25:00 +6:37 +5:38 Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Glenn, Norman, Hollie, Andy S.
Parhelion race 5 14/4/2012 2 9 0.970 3:23:43 +8:12 +6:00 Phil, Glenn, Drew, Norman, Richard, Martin P, Andy S
Parhelion race 6 21/4/2012 4 10 0.970 1:33:40 +9:45 +8:37 Phil, Glenn, Kevan, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S
Parhelion race 7 21/4/2012 1 10 0.970 1:00:22 +0:29 -0:08 Phil, Glenn, Kevan, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S
Parhelion race 8 28/4/2012 2 9 0.970 1:14:08 +4:14 +3:25 Phil, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S, Phil B.
Parhelion race 9 28/4/2012 1 8 0.970 1:18:00 -11:36 -1:23 Phil, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S, Phil B.

Race Reports

Appeal to skippers, crews and race officials, spectators, etc.

Please help me out with:

Spring Races 1 and 2

Crew: Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Richard E, Norman

For a change, we ate breakfast in the lightship. Once again, the new series meant that we all started on equal terms with everything to do again. This year, we have new antifouling, engine mounts and prop blades! The previous weekend,with a number of the crew we had a bit of a sneaky practice and shakedown for the new series.

We left the berth, hoisted the main, exited the harbour and sneaked through the inner swashway setting off the alarm. Soon, big blue was hoisted as we reached out to the committee boat near where Gleeds used to be! We had spotted that the racing marks hadn't yet been laid the previous weekend. With a light south easterly breeze and no marks on a spring tide, the race committee had their work cut out. As we gybed downwind we were preparing to drop the kite to stay with the committee boat when they announced their intention to move. Eventually, they settled near where KB Boatparks would normally be.

Lining up near the start, we could see that our fleet had changed quite a bit. Widgeon, a Halberg Rassy 31 joined the fleet helmed by Nick Fletcher, former RNSA chairman. Andrew and Jeremey Taylor had turned up in their new boat Maggie May, an MG 27; we know what trouble these can be as Roy Pearce had won the series several times in Rhapsody. Just In Time was back on the start line at the beginning of the series, after a dismasting last summer. Easy Tiger 2 was due to be on the water, but had reported a prop shaft leak the previous weekend, so was due to be lifted, presumably not fixed in time. Electra had taken a step down from IRC to join the club fleet; Mike Tatersall has stacks of experience and a good boat, she will be difficult to beat. Scallywag was still racing, but this time without the Taylors and recent arch rivals Muscadet de Havelet were ready to undertake the days business. Crazy Horse raced this weekend in IRC, but will complete the series in Club class.

Race 1

The course for the first race was a simple triangle, a beat to a laid windward mark, followed by a further beat to Mary Rose. Then a run to the leeward mark just downwind of the line, before returning to the line. The IRC fleet had a different course, which was to prove the downfall for one competitor ... It was about 2 hours before HW Portsmouth, the tide was about to turn to the west, but there was already an established flow into the harbour.

On the run into the line, the fleet lined up. We were approaching Scallywag from astern fast and needed to ease off a little. As we passed the committee boat, we hardended up to pass astern, just missing their rudder. The fleet made a good start and One More Knot was last, by a few seconds! As we passed nearest to the committee boat there was the usual banter from Rick about being late. Our reply, "we were only a week late". However, we had clean air and a bit of space on starboard. The crew got down to the drill, jib hard in. In the light airs, Norman had eased the outhaul on the main quite a bit, something we haven't really done before.

Electra and Widgeon started near the pin end of the line. We were pleased to pass in front of Widgeon after she had tacked, and close behind Electra. As the fleet spread, Electra led, followed by One More Knot and Just In Time. Muscadet appeared to be quite a long way downwind.

At the first mark, Electra rounded and hoisted her kite, making tracks for North Sturbridge ... which was where the IRC fleet were heading. On OMK, we recognised their mistake and originally planning to hold onto our course a bit longer, we elected to tack to make it look like we were going for the mark. We hoped to delay Electra in recognising their mistake .... sneaky huh?

As we set off for Mary Rose, pursued by the rest of the fleet we saw the enevitable as Electra doused their kite and started their recovery mission. One More Knot rounded Mary Rose at the head of the fleet, which required a tricky gybe set. Just In Time was next around followed by Electra (we think).

It was quite slow on the run and frustratingly we could see Electra making good progress. After bit of tweeking and heading up a bit, we appeared to open the gap slightly for a while before they came back at us. On the final approach to the mark, we went very broad, avoiding the gybe. Electra, playing the angles went off with better boat speed before gybing to return from the long way around. One More Knot was first to the mark and went for quite a late drop. The halyard was released, but no amount of pulling was getting the kite down. After a good bit of flapping, the problem was corrected ..... wrong spinnaker halyard!

Mean time, Electra had recovered and managed to get alongside. They attempted to go around the outside, but given the state of our kite we couldn't turn upwind. Side by side, each boat was vying for position as our kite eventually submitted, we were able to start the final beat to the line. Just In Time had taken the opportunity to close the gap substantially. Electra made good progress and beat us by 40s on the water, with Just In Time only 38s behind. Further back down the fleet, Widgeon was clocking up a good time to claim a win in her first race with the PSC Parhelion. Electra was 2nd, with One More Knot in 3rd, followed by Just In Time, Maggie May, Scallywag and Muscadet.

Race 2

The course was identical to the first race, with an extension. After passing through the line we were to continue to beat to the windward laid mark before running back to the the line.

At the start we joined the melee from the starboard end. To windward, Maggie May tacked and started her reach in towards the committee boat. One More Knot was faster and we were far from hard on the wind. We could easily have squeezed up to force Maggie May out, but instead we were nice to them allowing plenty of room as we passed the committee boat in the final few seconds before the gun. With 10 seconds to go, we hardened up, cutting up on Maggie May to hit the line nicely.

By now the tide out in the main channel was in full bore to the west. We beat out towards the windward mark, following Electra and being followed by Just In Time. The race turned into a bit of a procession, but the team on One More Knot had visibly improved. Sadly, so had the navigator on Electra! No gift from them this time. We watched as they set off into the distance.

Electra took line honours (and the race) some 6 minutes ahead of One More Knot in 2nd. Just In Time claimed 3rd finishing about 1 minute after OMK.

We can already see that this series will be significantly different from the previous ones. New boats, some new skippers and a lot of new challenges. It was a fantastic day out on the water, what a way to start the series. Sunburnt in March!

Spring Races 3 and 4

Crew: Phil, Drew, Kevan, Martin P, Glenn, Norman, Hollie, Andy S.

The "Red Cafe", or more properly "Harry's Cafe" was the venue for breakfast. If breakfast was good, it was Andy's idea; if it was bad Glenn would cop the blame! It turned out to be good, so well done Andy .... even if the tables were small.

One More Knot was out on the water by about 9am, giving us a good chance to check out the conditions. The wind was a NW F3, but due to veer through to north east. The tide was a neap and we would start our first race near to low water. The tide would be running to the east throughout.

We discovered the committee boat near Gilkicker point. We thought the start would be interesting from there. A beat would take us straight up the beach! While we were practicing with the kite, they radio burst into life and the committee boat announces that they were off towards Mother Bank on the Island side. We had dropped our kite and sailed parallel to the shore as yet another floating tower block came up the Solent. When we could bear away, we hoisted the kite again to sail down to the committee boats new position. Racing was delayed for a few minutes while the fleet made their way to the start area. Club class had 9 boats.

Race 3

By the time of our start the wind had already veered to NNE. From the start near Mother Bank, with a laid ODM we were to beat to Darling Associates (off Gilkicker Point), before running back to Kemps Quay (formerly Bob Kemp). This would be a gybe mark for the next leg to Craft Insure before a short beat back to the line.

With the committee boat at the port end of the line, One More Knot lined up nearby for a port tack start, along with Scallywag. The starboard tackers where sailing into the tide and had mostly approached from a reach. We had a decent start and managed to cross in front of all but one of the fleet. Scallywag to leeward of us needed to duck one of the boats that we sneaked in front of, Widgeon I think.

The fleet soon split, with half the boats, including Muscadet, going out on a starboard tack. The boats on port included One More Knot, Electra, Just In Time and Crazy Horse.

At the windward mark, Darling Associates, Electra led from One More Knot. We had planned for a starboard pole, but had seen Electra swap close to the mark because the wind had swung around to a full NE. We elected to do the same,prior to our rounding in 2nd place. The fleet that went out on starboard were behind, but Muscadet had a good lead over the rest of her half, and the gap behind us didn't look big enough.

As were rounded, we gybed, hoisted the pole and then the kite. It wasn't the fastest hoist, but things soon got worse. We suffered probably the biggest hour glass, with about 3 turns in the head of the kite. After some frantic pulling on the tapes, the crew elected to drop the kite back on the deck. Once the problem was rectified and then the kite hoisted again, this time without a hitch. The GPS shows that it took about 4 minutes to fix everything, during which the speed fell to 4 knots, before returning to nearly 6.

When we looked up, Muscadet was uptide,presuambly having performed a bear away set. On One More Knot, we were able to close the now considerable distance on Electra a bit and open a gap on Muscadet.

We gybed at Kemps Quay and continued in procession like fashion to Craft Insure. The drop went well, but possibly 10 seconds early. It felt like an age to make the last bit against the tide running downwind without the spinnaker.

Once rounded we set off on our beat. Looking up we could see the eastern Solent was full of spinnakers, coming our way. We think it was the JOG Nab Race returning. In their efforts to cheat the tide, they were sailing over Mother Bank, straight through our line! We managed to negotiate a way back to the line keeping relatively clear air.

One More Knot was 2nd on the water, over 6 minutes behind Electra and nearly 2 minutes in front of Just In Time. Once the handicaps were unwound, One More Knot was 3rd, behind Electra and Muscadet de Havelet.

Race 4

This race was the same as the previous race except for an extended final leg back across the Solent to Darling Associates for the finish. So Start at Motherbank, Darling Associates, Kemp's Quay, Craft Insure and then Darling Associates.

This time, we elected for a more conventional start, on starboard at the starboard (pin) end of the line. We approached the line on a much higher course than the rest of the fleet. We had really good speed and the timing was looking quite good, so we didn't ease off. As we approached the line we recognised that we were in a complete controlling position, as leeward boat. A start had never felt so good! Easy Tiger 2 was busy trying to slow down. We were telling them to go up, it took a while for them to recognise what was happening, but when they did they started yelling at the rest of the fleet. The message soon went across them all!

As we approach the pin, it became apparent that at our speed we would be about 8 seconds early, so we bore away a little to reach along the line before hardening up. This created enough of a gap for most of the rest of the fleet to squeeze through. Just before the gun, we came back hard on the wind. At the gun, looking down the line, 4 or 5 yachts were bang on the line. It was a really competitive start.

The beat to windward began. One More Knot was to leeward of the fleet, but with her nose out in front. With good speed, sails sheeted hard and the crew on the rail we were able to out point the rest of the fleet. One More Knot and Electra started to nose out in front, thier speeds evenly matched. Slowly, One More Knot was able to climb up towards Electra and marginally extend our lead, although Electra was still to windward.

Then the wind dropped, and while Phil on One More Knot bore away to keep the sails full and driving; Mike on Electra undertook some other black magic, apparently redistributing the weight of the crew on board and shot up wind opening a gap. It seems we have just been taught some kind of lesson .... if only we can figure it out.

So the procession started again, following Electra around the track. The kite was hoisted at Darling and we deferred the gybe at Kemp's Quay for a while to play the VMG wind angles and avoid the tide. Coming into Craft Insure, we were just in front of Wild Blue (IRC, Elan 333, sailing a slightly longer course). This time we pushed up hard onto the bouy before the drop ..... except it didn't. The halyard was stuck at the top of the mast. Phil ended up sitting on the pulpit, pulling at the spinnaker which did eventually free the halyard. Meanwhile, Wild Blue had avoided us and were making their way to the finish.

Nearly 4 minutes after we rounded the mark, we set off on the beat. This had obviously allowed the rest of our fleet to close up considerably. At the line we crossed about 4 minutes behind Wild Blue, so the beat had been ok performance wise.

In class, once again we finished 2nd on the water and 3rd in the results, behind Electra and Musacadet de Havelet. Crazy Horse was equal 3rd with One More Knot on handicap. At present, we are still 2nd in the table, but once the discards kick in, it will be hard to stay there unless we up our game. Our lost 4 minutes cost us a 2nd place ..... if only .....

Back in the club house, the crews of Crazy Horse and One More Knot enjoyed a beer with the committee boat team, but it would have been better if more crews had joined us.

Race 5 : Long race : Roy Pearce Memorial

Crew: Phil, Glenn, Drew, Norman, Richard, Martin P, Andy S

This weeks race was a long race. The club have named the spring long race after Roy Pearce, who was a close competitor, skipper and friend to many in and around the club. Particularly significantly, many of Roy's crew are now onboard One More Knot. Consequently, this was a race we really wanted to do well in.

After last weeks experience breakfast was in "Harry's Cafe" again. Bob had cried off during the week after international duties and Hollie had checked in sick, so initially we were down to 6. Fortunately, Martin P was on the committee boat, so after a few last minute phone calls, we were able to chase the committee boat around the Hamilton bank, from Gleeds to Gilkicker, where eventually we were able to transfer Martin on board, another ex member of Roy's crew.

Race 5 : Roy Pearce Memorial

A very long course was set, and we were warned on the VHF that we would need a big bit of paper! So, with the start at RNCRAYC, then around the Solent via Vail Williams, North Sturbridge, Browndown, Darling Associates, Motherbank, Outer Spit, Vail Williams, line, Darling Associates, Outer Spit, Gleeds and back to the finish at RNYRAYC.

The wind, 8-16 knots, oscillating between E and NNE. A joint IRC and Club start was announced. On One More Knot, we had already set in the line waypoints, and had a practice beat up to the line to set a marker on the GPS. Prior to the start, we pushed out and turned back with 3 minutes to go. As we came back on quite a long reach to the line, the timing was looking marginal. Many of the fleet tacked to join us between the 2 minute and 1 minute mark. Many were over the top of us, but we were still able to come up towards the committee boat, so we could push many away ... or so we thought. With a couple IRC boats to leeward, we followed White Cloud in being careful to avoid an overlap, to keep our options open. As the fleet converged, we were surprised by how dirty the air was. We had no 'bite'. All in all, not a bad start, but it seemed like everyone else got a better one. So we ended up starting at the back in the dirty air of a very very compressed fleet. We could tell we were suffering. We managed to use diplomacy to persuade Easy Tiger 2 to tack. We allowed them 15 seconds to escape before we tacked too, (they had been nice to us), to avoid tacking right over the top of them. At last, we had some decent clean air.

The fleet split, One More Knot on port going away from the wall looking for a bit of tidal help. We put in a further double tack to get to Vail Williams. The tacks were designed so that we could go for a well prepared bare away set at Vail Williams. We had time to set the pole before our arrival, so that as we rounded, just behind Auditrac, we hosited the kite and were on our way.

But we hadn't spotted the arrival of Muscadet still beating to the mark we had just rounded. Not wanting to risk being pushed significantly off course, we elected to go to leeward of her. Just after our decision was made and course committed to, Auditrac chose to use the moment to defend her wind by luffing us. Phil attempted to slot One More Knot between the two yachts. Our course was to leeward of Muscadet, and it would have been dangerous to cross Muscadet's bows. Just at the last second, Phil realised how much Muscadet was heeling, there was a real possibility of a clash of rigs between the Muscadet and One More Knot, both travelling at speed in exactly the opposite direction. The wheel was put down as OMK swerved to leeward, at which point the new collision risk was with Auditrac. On Auditrac, they started calling "UP, UP, UP". No way ..... I'd rather kiss a boat going the same way than to take off 2 masts. By some miracle, all three skippers managed to find enough space ... phew .. the race continued.

On the run down to North Sturbridge, the skippers each tried different tactics. For us, running deep and true seemed to be working the best. The pole was out square. When the wind died, we played the angles a little. We managed to open a small gap on Auditrac and maintained the gap with Wild Blue. The fleet had split, we were at the back of the faster IRC boats. Ahead was Electra, leading club class, and already well behind were the others in the club fleet.

Dead running, we talked through the options before gybing well before North Sturbridge. Fighting the tide, this allowed us to come around to port slightly as soon as we were ready. We could see the front runners were dropping their kites at North Sturbridge for the reach to Browndown.

At the mark, just like Kurketrekker (IRC First 35) ahead, we elected to keep the kite and run slightly deeper. Our boat speed was good, but then someone spotted the Tanker! Ooooppp, do we scoot in front ... a few seconds of evaluation. Not this time, the pole was brought back square and we ran parallel to the ships path until we were overtaken. Not all bad, we now had a nice fast angle to Browndown.

Because we had an angle into Browndown, we elected to drop the kite 20s short of the mark. This allowed us the opportunity to perform a very tidy tack at the mark to stay in the deeper water, which we believed would help us tidally.

Just In Time followed us around about 2 minutes later Electra was still a few minutes ahead. The beat back to Darling Associates was confusing. We thought that the deeper water would help by picking up a stronger tide, but when we cross tacked with Just In Time, who had gone inshore, they had closed the gap considerably. On the approach to Darling Associates, One More Knot had the inshore track and opened the gap again considerably in a short amount of time.

On the final approach to the mark, there was a debate about which side the pole would be for the hoist. Martin had done the sums on the shifting wind and declared a starboard pole. This meant a gybe set. Phil was convinced that we would need a port pole, which would have been the case for the earlier easterly wind. However, the wind had currently swung around to NNE again. Learning from mistakes in the last few weeks, we elected to not change plans on the final approach. So at the mark, we gybed, the kite was hoisted efficiently and Martin was proven right, and correctly, everyone .. including Phil .... ignored Phil's utterings.

It was a relatively simple run down to Mother Bank. We elected to gybe on the final approach to allow us to deploy the #2 before rounding the mark to port.

A long beat to Outer Spit followed. Once again, One More Knot went for the deep water hoping for a tidal advantage, but it was pretty neutral against the others. Our entertainment was provided by the Sunsail fleet hoisting spinnakers after rounding Mary Rose. At Outer Spit, we tacked into the tide coming out of the harbour. We attempted to get the pole ready 3 minutes before the mark, but were headed by the wind. The pole was dropped, just in case we need to tack. However we were rescued by a lift and the pole was readied again.

Rounding Vail Williams, we hosited the kite and quickly discovered that it was quite shy. The pole was set forward, rewarded by some nice boat speed. Glenn on the spinnaker sheet Norman on the main kept us flying along nicely.

As we approached the line after nearly 3 hours of racing, we debated whether the race would be shortened for the club fleet. However, ahead, Electra still had her kite up after crossing the line. So, keep racing .... do the second lap.

On the approach to Darling Associates, we talked through the transition. It was a little complicated, a drop on a reach is never easy, the kite gets blown after very quickly and strongly. At the mark we would need to gybe and come hard on the wind. So we deployed the jib, eased onto a slightly deeper course, tripped the spinnaker and dropped it just in time to make the mark. With a little caution because of the tide, now running quite strongly we rounded and came promptly hard on the wind. Because the wind had swung around to the north by approx 40 degrees, we were able to fetch Outer Spit. The long tight fetch had Glenn was constantly trimming the genoa, with Phil trying to sniff out the best of the tide on the deep/shallow boundary. Drew used the leg to prepare the kite for the final leg.

Rounding Outer Spit onto the penultimate leg to Gleeds, the discussion once again came to the deployment of the kite. We elected to round Gleeds (bare away) to see what the wind was really doing. Once around, it was clear that the apparent was ahead of the beam, so the kite stayed on deck. In the latter half there may have been an opportunity to use the asymmetric but as it wasn't rigged and we were going reasonably well under whites, we hung on to cross the line after 3 hours 23 minutes.

On the way back to the club, we monitored the rest of the club fleet finishing. We knew the danger wasn't over. Sadly for us, the wind had shifted back 40 degrees to the east, which allowed the slower boats to comfortably use their spinnakers. We monitored Muscadet very closely, it was going to be tight. We wouldn't know until we saw the results.

Back into the club house there was a good turnout for bangers and mash, lubricated by the odd pint and tales of the day. The results were in, One More Knot was 2nd, some 6 minutes behind Electra, Widgeon squeezed into 3rd place, nearly a minute behind us, followed by Muscadet de Havelet, Just In Time, Crazy Horse, Maggie May, Scallywag and Easy Tiger 2.

Post race debrief notes

Races 6 and 7

Phil, Glenn, Kevan, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S.

With breakfast in Harry's Cafe and no wind, there was talk of no rush, wind gods and anchoring again. Kevan is in for his 2nd major cancer op on Tuesday, so this will be his last racing for a while. We are hoping for a good recovery so he can navigate on the Round the Island Race at the end of June,

Back on board, during the pre-race prep, Andy spotted a problem with the starboard spinnaker halyard. After a bit of wiggling and getting nowhere, Phil was hoisted up the mast to have a look. Some tape had got stuck from antics with the halyard earlier in the series, maybe we'd have less hassle now.

Out on the water, there was indeed very little wind. We tried anchoring with the dinghy anchor because its so easy to deploy. With only about 10m of line in 6 metres below the keel, it wasn't ideal and we found ourselves dragging at about 0.5kts, but there was nothing to bump into.

The start was postponed, but at least the wind started to fill in. We gave the asymmetric a go in only 4-10 knots of breeze and managed to get some nice performance in light airs with the wind on and even slightly in front of the beam. It was put away before we started concentrating on the start sequence.

Race 6

Course: Gleeds, Darling Associates, KB Boatparks, Vail Williams, back to a shortened course at Darling Associates Wind: 4 - 8 knots, mainly from the West.

We had a good start, 2/3 of the way towards the committee boat. Electra was to leeward but on the line, Easy Tiger 2 to windward. A good number of the fleet hit the line well.

We wanted to tack, but couldn't as we were pinned by Easy Tiger 2. Those near the pin end were able to tack earlier. We were still pinned by Easy Tiger. Our speed was good and after a bit of tweeking we got One More Knot pointing.

Electra had managed to pull out enough of a lead to tack and cross our bows on port. Eventually, we had managed to point high enough to get in front of Easy Tiger where we then tacked away safely after 6 minutes of racing. 10 minutes later, it felt like the wind was dropping as we approached the wall. We knew that there was good tide along the wall, but what if the wind failed. Electra and Muscadet were already committed to going in to the wall.

We tacked to stay out, hoping for a better breeze. In hindsight, the GPS track shows our speed across the ground, into the tide dropping from about 4 knots to about 3 knots. It may have been the failing wind behind Gilkicker Point, but we could see that Electra and Muscadet were doing well. Thinking about windshifts around the headland, we tacked and went in close. Electra and Muscadet passed in front of us. As we popped out past the headland, Electra and Muscadet both tacked soon, while we carried on, electing to make our tacks later. We seemed to pick up a remarkable amount of time.

Approaching the line, Phil also called for the kie to be hoisted with a port pole which allowed us a nicely executed bear away set. Most of the fleet carried their kites deep along the rhumbline to KB Boat parks, however we elected to try the angles. After a gybe and some peserverence we came abeam Muscadet. Mucadet was quite a long way inshore, with the pack tucked in behind them. As we converged on KB Boatparks, One More Knot was just ahead on port, while Muscadet was on starboard. There was a call from Muscadet that we didn't hear clearly, but we retaliated with "Water". Phil had to wake the crew up because if we went around abeam, One More Knot would have had an obligation to gybe. The crew busrt into action and were ready to gybe, when the two boats converged at the mark. Fortunately, OMK was just ahead and we continued on our way without gybing.

We hung onto our course for a while to try for a hotter angle into Vail Williams which would be handy against the tide flowing into the harbour. A gybe took us into Vail Williams, expecting a bit of adverse tide near the mark. After a tidy drop, we hardened up and legged it for the deep water where the tide would now be running properly.

The VHF crackled into life to announce a shortend course. The race would now end at Darling Associates to allow the smaller boats to avoid the pain of another slow run against the increasing tide. This caused us some amusement. OMK was running 2nd on the water. Electra was about a week ahead, and was already nearing the windward mark Darling Associates. We watched as the Committee Boat raced to the finish. Who would get the there first?

We looked at the situation and correctly figured out the Electra would finish well before the Committee Boat was on her new station. Fortunately Electra took her own finishing time to claim a win by a county mile, well 10 minutes on the water in front of us, but 3 minutes in front of Muscadet who claimed 2nd spot. This clearly wasn't our best race, claiming 4th behind Crazy Horse. In our analysis, we didn't get it together on the first beat. Later in the club, Daryl had suggested that the wind had been quite flukey and the tide had just turned. Maybe we didn't read the situation well enough.

Race 7

One More Knot wins a hard fought battle by seconds

The start had been moved to RNCRAYC off Gilkicker. The tide was now flowing strongly to the West. The wind had picked up and during the race was between 8 to 18 knots. At the start it was blowing about 16 knots from the West, wind against tide. The course was from the line at RNCRAYC, to Darling Associates, before a run down to Mary Rose, a tight fetch to RNCRAYC, then a short spinnaker leg to KB Boatparks, another beat to the windward mark at Darling Associates and then a spinnaker run back to the line.

With the strong tide, and a bit of time on our hands as the last of the club fleet were finishing, we took the opportunity to practice a few timed runs into the line. We fully expected the strong tide to cause a few problems. After 3 runs, it looked like we had sussed a reasonable system and awaited the assembly of the fleet and the arrival of the Committee Boat.

Looking at the IRC start, their fleet had a little trouble with most of the boats arriving early. Then it was our turn. With 1 minute to go, we were by far the furthest from the line, the most uptide and leeward boat. We hardened up and set off for the line with the fleet ahead. We could already see the sport starting, boats arriving and then having to bear away to reach down the line. They realised that the tide was pushing them over so they had to bear away further onto a broad reach. We arrived at speed and desperately tried to scrub off 4 seconds without ramming the boat in front! Some rudder slewing and dip along the line seemed to do the trick before the gun went and we were away. Apparently 2 boats overshot the committee boat, whilst Crazy Horse and Muscadet were over.

One More Knot started closest to the starboard pin end of the line and had clean air secured. Electra had a good start near the committee boat, which might have been the biased end.

Whilst we got on with the race, a number of the fleet were sorting themselves out. For the boats over the line, it must have been quite difficult to get back without impeding the pack. Allegedly, it took Muscadet about 3 1/2 minutes to cross the line.

After passing Gilkicker, Electra tacked in towards the shore much earlier, but ahead of One More Knot. Leaving it much later, trying to pick up more tide, One More Knot went to the port layline.

At the mark, Electra approached on starboard, just ahead of One More Knot, on port. Electra was able to bear away to round the mark, while OMK needed to tack.

As we rounded Darling Associates, Electra led by about 1/2 boat length from One More Knot. It was already a 2 horse race on the water. This was about as close as we have been to Electra for some time, so everyone was on edge.

The two yachts rounded the mark and hoisted their spinnakers. One More Knot tried to block the breeze into Electra sails. We don't really know how successful we were, but they weren't getting away. The gap opened and closed several times on the run down to Mary Rose.

After 20 minutes of nervous close proximity racing, we approached Mary Rose. Electra had extended a small lead and hoisted her jib. This seemed to slow her down, so on One More Knot we held our nerve and waited until the last few seconds to unfurl the #2, push the pole foward, trip the spinnaker, drop, gybe, round the mark and harden up. It all went very slickly and we were still only about 2 boats lengths behind Electra.

However, Electra showed their class as they were up to speed on the next beat much more quickly than One More Knot. Having rounded behind Electra, we went for a higher line to make sure of some clean air. It took us a while to get upto speed.

Electra led us back up to RNCRAYC which would be a bear away set near the committee boat. Once we were sure we could lay the mark (actually pretty easy this time with the tide helping), the pole was hoisted in anticipation of the rounding. Phil gave the nod for Martin to set the guy. Seeing this Andrew started hoisting the kite. Being 3 boats lengths short of the mark, Phil shouted "STOP" to Andrew. Fortunately, only 6 feet of kite had come out and Drew hung onto the rest of it. As OMK reached the buoy, the nod was given for the hoist. Andrew sweated the halyard fromt the mast, Kevan took in the slack. As the kite reached the top, Glenn sheeted and then we were away, kite set and the transom not yet clear of the mark. Later, we were complemented on our hoist by Daryll on the Committee Boat.

The slick hoist put us right back in contention with Electra, chasing her down once again. It was mainly an effort in stopping her get away. Martin and Glenn were trimming the spinnaker all the way. Mike Tatersall refused to look around, now matter how close we got!

The next mark was another complicated drop. We debated a gybe before we got there, but didn't. We need to drop the kite, then gybe around the mark before we could harden up on our new course to windward. It went a bit wrong and ended up overstandng the mark by a couple of boat lengths. When the jib was deployed, it wasn't sheeted hard so our initial course wasn't high enough. It seemed like an age, but was probably on a few seconds before we were back on track.

Once again, Electra was ahead on the beat. But, once again we took ground out of her near the windward mark by keeping out in the deep water for longer. Another gybe set at Darling associates saw us close enough to try to cover Electra. Electra were using a different spinnaker in the higher winds, and they had been a bit slow in getting it up this time. We were coming up to the hour, so we started doing the sums in our heads, roughly 36 seconds per hour. It was going to be tight.

We chased and chased. We were closing the gap, marginally ... but the line was coming. Could we get close enough? Everyone on board was looking at the options, the kite was being tweeked, the pole adjusted backwards, forwards, up, down. Was it helping? Were we any closer?

On board the guys called 28/29 seconds in a 1 hour race. In the result, Electra crossed the line, 29 seconds ahead, with a race time of 0:59:53.

Yee haaa .... One More Knot wins another race, beating Electra by 8 seconds. We worked really hard for this one, and with one mistake wondered if we had thrown it. I think we gained a lot between Gilkicker and Darling Associates, beating with the tide. We were much happier now!

Races 8 and 9

Phil, Drew, Norman, Martin P., Andy S, Phil B.

The last weekend of the series. We can't catch Electra, but we are sitting in 2nd place able to be caught by either Muscadet or on a really bad day, Widgeon. Muscadet already had 1 more 2nd place than us, but we were holding a race win. If Muscadet managed a win and managed to tie on points, the count back to the 2nd places could become the decider. There was a good possiblity that Electra might not race two races, so another boat would win. After the combined mathematically genius of those on board was brought to bear on the problem we came to the conclusion that we had to beat Muscadet in at least one race to be sure.

With some late crew changes due to sickness, we rustled up a crew of just 6, one down on our ideal. So after a hearty breakfast it was down to pontoon to sort out the boat.

Race 8

A slightly unusual course was set for the race. A start at RNCRAYC near Gilkicker, followed by a short beat to KB Boatparks. A beam/broad reach to Gleeds before a run to Kemps Quay, before reversing the route back to the line.

Prior to the start, we managed a few practice runs at the line, without being hindered by other boats. Of course, for the real start we managed to get covered by a number of the others which limited our options. We came in just astern of Muscadet and teased with them, eventually coming up across their transom on the final approach to the line. The fleet generally seem to be having much better starts and we found ourselves a little way along the line. Just In Time were near the committee boat and were the first to tack. We settled and outpointed Easy Tiger II to make room for a tack onto port. Muscadet was to leeward when we tacked away, Electra was inshore. It wasn't a great start we recovered a bit during the first leg.

As the fleet reconverged at KB Boatparks, Electra had already rounded and was clear ahead. One More Knot came into the mark on starboard, and letting the rest know about it. Maggie May was just to windward of Muscadet, both on port. It was an opportunity to get Muscadet to tack off and poor Maggie May got caught, jam in the sandwich style. Eventually, we conceeded and tacked to round the mark.

The reach wasn't quite enough to fly the kite. The assymetric would have worked well, but then we would have need to peel to "Big Blue" for the run. Our risk analysis said we would lose more time than we gained. Instead, we allowed ourselves to come higher than the rhumbline, to create the opportunity to bear away befoe we got to the mark. When the time came, the kite was hoisted well before the mark and the speed increased by about 0.4 knots. Once we hoisted our kite, we noticed that Muscadet hoisted theirs, the only other boat to try on this leg. Their course was slightly shy of ours and it looked like it made their time more difficult.

The run was straight forward but against the tide, with a couple of gybes to allow us an easier and more effective drop at the leeward mark, After rounding the mark, it was a beat with the tide. Once again, we were struggling to make the best of it tactically; we really need to figure this out in this type of tide.

The final leg was another short leg to the line under spinnaker against the tide. Looking back through the fleet we could see Muscadet looked to be a contender. In practice, running against the tide took longer than we expected but we ended up with enough of a margin to claim 2nd on corrected time, 3:25 behind Electra and 1:31 in front of Muscadet de Havelet. The course was unusual but fun to sail. It kept the crew entertained.

Race 9

One More Knot wins the final race of series

Out on the water we weren't sure what had happened in results for the first race of the day. So there was still a lot to play for, especially as Electra had packed up, so there was a certain win up for grabs.

The course for the last race of the series was from the start at RNCRAYC to the winward mark at KB Boatparks, followed by a long run to North Sturbridge, a fetch to Darling Associates, another run to Kemps Quay, before a long beat back to the windward mark, KB Boatparks and a short run to the line. As we suspected might happen, Electra declined to race the final race, hence making the result in this one doubly important as we weren't sure about the race 8 result. It was a combined class start for the final race.

At the start we found ourselves at the back of a very tightly bunched fleet at the committee boat end of the line, with White Cloud (IRC HOD 35) and Wild Blue (IRC Elan 333). As soon as we were clear to of the committee boat, we tacked to get some clear air.

At the 1st mark, we followed White Cloud around, making a much swifter job of the hoist. Our transom was barely clear of the mark by the time the spinnaker was filled and set. White Cloud start to luff to defend so we gybed and made our own way which allowed us to stem the tide better.

From there, with One More Knot out in front of club class, it was a drag race to try to open enough of a gap on the rest of the fleet. At North Sturbridge, we dropped the the spinnaker a little too soon and it took an age to fight against the tide to round the mark. Looking back, we could see that many in the fleet had already allowed themselves to be washed downtide of the mark. White Cloud had run away and we were left match racing Wild Blue.

The crew were on fire, the hoists and drops went like clockwork to the end of the race. We were ahead of Wild Blue going into the final beat, but we tacked out into the deeper water earlier, hoping for the tide to help sweep us east. However, it seemed to be a mistake as Wild Blue, routing differently managed to get to the windward mark about 1 minute ahead of us.

In our class, we crosse the line 1 hour 18 minutes after the start. On the water we were nearly 4 minutes in front of Just In Time, who eventually took 5th spot on corrected. One More Knot won the final race of the series, from Widgeon and then Scallywag followed by Muscadet de Havelet.

Portsmouth Sailing Club

Following racing, it was back to the sailing club for some good food, beer and chat about the days and series events. Electra had dominated the class and picked up 1st spot. One More Knot claimed 2nd spot, include 2 race wins. Muscadet De Havelet took the final trophy in club class.

During the celebrations, Phil realised that he had been set up. There was a special perpetual award of the Roy Pearce Memorial Trophy to Phil by Rick Hodgeson. The trophy is a sheave recovered from the original Invincible, which sank of Langstone harbour in 1758, including the full provenance and documented history, signed by the recovery team. Norman said a few words and Phil (lock the doors Duff) made a longer speach. Roy was a good friend who is missed by those that knew him. His memorial trophy has gone to a good home, thankyou! "I was very proud to receive it."

Roy Pearce Memorial Trophy