Great Weather – at last
After so many cancelled races this season, on Sunday 28th April SAMM’s sailors at last were blessed with great racing weather. This resulted in the best turnout this year with 18 competitors sailing in 10 boats.
First Race
All 10 boats got off to a fine start with 8 vying for a place on the start line. One of the Gambas wrongly called for water against the Laser Radial. Good nature won over and the Radial did give way. With a light 8 knot wind the boats soon spread out and the race was without incident, except for the support boat getting in the way on the finish line, preventing the race control getting a clear sight when one of the Gambas was finishing!
Second Race
With the wind now at 13-14 knots the start was quite dramatic with a lot of starboard calling and the Omega flying over the line with Topaz in hot pursuit. Cuatro had a damaged rudder and struggled to catch up. The racing was complicated by the presence of swimmers in the water and another sailing school using the buoys for practice. At one instance, they forced the Sea Hopper to miss the mark. With the Radial calling starboard on the Gamba Uno and being ignored, the Race Officer was expecting a protest, but once again goodwill prevailed. On every lap there were at least two boats vying for the finish line with only seconds between them, thus keeping the intrepid race control officers on their toes. Again, no incidents during a fiercely contested, but friendly and close race.
Winners
First race – Julian Singleton in the Topaz.
Second race – Derek Howe and Ian Sinclair in Mistral.
The Best Day This Season
With 20 competitors sailing 11 boats this was the best turnout of 2019 for the SAMM Race Day on May 12th and this was matched by good weather at last.
The morning race started in East 4.5-6 knot winds and the boats straggled crossing the start line with Ginetta 8 minutes late because of a jammed furling line, so she soon retired. The race progressed without incident, but often with close battles rounding marks. It was great to see some boats employing tactics within the rules to gain the advantage. The corrected times showed Shoestring Cuatro the winner just 2.35 seconds in front of the Shoestring Omega.
The wind had veered to ESE 5-7 knots for the second race start which was fiercely contested by the whole fleet. With the wind gradually increasing to 11 knots, this highly competitive spirit continued throughout the whole 75 minutes of the race. At one point 8 boats rounded a mark within 6 seconds of each other. Although the Balaton Mistral was a clear winner by 16.15 seconds, only 32.27 seconds separated the first five boats and only 0.24 seconds separated the third and fourth places.
There was some excellent, tight and competitive racing by all boats to confirm this as ‘The Best Day This Season’.
For full information and contact details for SAMM go to
www.sailingmarmenor.com