All,

Anyone got any idea as to which they would prefer for the Sunday.

Long range forcast suggest around F3-4 which will mean the full course should run. Long course is about 48 miles as the crow flies; short 26. BUT remember course is roughtly NE / SW so is usually W/L ish

I've done both and the long course IS a challenge single handed!


Also, anyone going to be there Friday?

I'm going to try and sail Friday afternoon/evening if the wind / tide is favorable.

Scooby

I will do the short course,getting too old for the trip up to Clacton.

I think Wayne is coming too.

Excellent, That is at least 4 F16's (you two, Paul and Anne) I'll go with the flow regarding Short or Long (Paul and Anne did the Long with me 2 years ago)!

When are you planning to arrive? I'll be there Friday.

Wayne and I are planning on going up on Friday evening hoping to get there around 8 depending on traffic.

Cool.

Shout if you want some food, the BBQ club runs till about that time. I'll probably still have my BBQ going, quite happy to buy another pack of sausages/chicken if you want me to cook some for you. Just let me know by Thursday night. And then ring me (Wayne has my mobile no) when you are close and I'll start cooking!

Scooby

Thanks ,we will be in touch.

No worries

Remember you need 10m tow rope, flare and paddle (they sell them all, but have limited numbers).

Dudes, you should aim for the short course. The forecast calls for not a lot of wind at all... 6 knots on the nose in the morning, even less in the afternoon. You may have a thermal to help you lot coming back if temperature stay high.

The Datchet pursuit race on Saturday is going to be even worse. The forecast calls for 0 knots at 14:00...

Guys,

I've been doing some calcs and this year might be the year to do the short course.

Low water at Mersea (island north of the river, opposite Bradwell) is 10:47 so if the wind is light, the slower boats may struggle to make it before the tide turns had and comes back in. Tide is FAIRLY slack a couple of hours either side and then it shoots back in.

In the past years, we have left just after high and so the slow boats had ridden the tide out and then back. THIS year it looks like we MAY plug Some tide before we get to the Colne gate. Thiss will help the fast boats for the first time in years!!!!

Those that are coming for the first time, I'm more than hapopy to go thru some of the issues Friday or Saturday night (note I have a neeting about SCHRS booked fgor 20:00).




Nick / Wayne, do you want some food Friday night? Wayne has my mobile, I'll be in shopping around midday.

Just 4 F16's at the ECPR, Nick myself and Scooby doing the short course and Chris Sproat and crew doing the Long Course sadly a day of real frustrations and euphoria. The race was delayed for about an hour due to sea mist obscurring the course and lack of wind to begin with. As it turned out the course was shortened for all boats at the second gate Colne Point.

Any way we all set off drifting and sort of sailing in what ever puffs of wind ( right on the nose )we could find scrapping and dicing with Catapults, Thames Barges, Dart 15's/ 18's, Shadows, Hobies and a couple of F18's, 2 hours later at Bradwell Power Station all 29 of the slow course boats were all still in contention virtually going through the gate in a few minutes regardless of there size or form, one minute you were miles ahead, the next everyone was back together.

Onto the leg right down the coast to Colne point, all still in a line, still with the wind on the nose and still F1 - F2 winds. The Catapults and the smaller Darts were still lapping at our heels. Slowly but surely on the leg the wind improved to about a steady F2 and the F16s F18s and the Shadows slowly pulled out a small lead of about 10 minutes at the Colne Point gate. I think about 4 perhaps 4 1/2 hours to this point. We ahd also caught some of the boats who had started 20 minutes ahead.

Now the really fun bit, turn the gate and guess what we have a 15 mile run along the coast and back up the estuary with a tail wind. Up with the Spinnaker and probaly 10 miles of that I was up on one hull and at times out on the wire. At this point we had caught the slower boats who had started previously and it was staggering how you can reel these boats in when you can get one hull up out of the water. About 1 hour 30 minutes back passing boats all the way, what a real blast and made all that pain of getting there so worth while.

Results, well we were never going to win it in our race with the Darts and Catapults still being with us 3 Hours in but Chris on the Viper came a very creditable 3rd overall in the Long Course where there were mainly fast handicap boats.

I guess my result doesn't really matter as we all had a great time, hosts and venue really top draw and in company who likes a beer a two, just what a great weekend is all about.

I hurt.....

3 times sailing between October and June is NOT the way to prepare for 6 hours on the water.

I'd re-enforce all that Wayne said above; it's a tough race and we were yo-yoing around all the way up the course.

I got a better start than Wayne and Nick and got away for a bit. Nick then caught me up / I got a way a couple of times and by then we had fought our way to the Colne. I'm guessing I was a fair bit in front at that point as I never saw Nick or Wayne again. I wired most of the way from Colne to Bradwell and hopefully the camera boat got some good shots - first time on the wire down wind this year for me!!!!!!

Both the fleets compressed up the river and I finished 2nd boat over the water in the colne point fleet and in with the Tornado's and F18's that started 20 minutes before us, so I was certainly going quick down wind.

Nick and Wayne were about 5 / 10 mins behind me which does not really do them justice, it took me 3 1/2 hours to shake them off!!!!

A fantastic weekend and I'll be back next year.

Date is 4th July 2010.

Nick and I were together at Bradwell only about a minute behind, at Colne you and Nick tucked into the shore before tacking to the gate, Nick was only about 2 minutes behind you at that point. I know he was worried about his damaged spinnaker pole and he didn't push to hard back. I decided to go out to sea further into the steadier breeze but got caught by the much stronger tide than I thought. I lost about 5 minutes on you guys in the space of a 10 minute tack, dammmmmmmm.

What a blast back though.

Is there anywhere we can get hold of the actual elapsed times, it would be interesting to see how far the reallllllllly tough single handicap rating is killing us. I'm not sure how I can sail to those numbers apart from buying a blowup doll, fitting a jib and claiming a 2 handed handicap. To give time to the F18's, and fully sorted 20ft Hurricanes now thats harsh.

I've asked for a copy of the results in the excel form that they had printed out.

We all had a tough time going out, but we caught a lot back coming back in. I was in with the middle F18's and the tail end of the Tornado's on the fast course so we wre doing OK.

I feel the Stealth is a little "sticky" in those conditions upwind (we do have more hull area under water than most with the flat bottom design) and we are always going to struggle in "light and crappy" conditions that we would not be racing in usually as it was below 5kts true. I had Jenny ball on her D15 in sight at Bradwell!!

Yes it would be interesting to transpose our elapsed time into the fast race times to get a better idea of how we did against similar boats. With the D15's etc sticking with us it was never going to be easy to shake off their handicap advantage on the way back. What is the saying, horses for courses

Pictures!?

I have no objection to sailing F18s even, but giving time is too much. That's a class killer for sure.

The difference in SCHRS rating between a single handed F16 and a F18 is less that 1m30s for an hour racing. Quite minimal. Duo F16 are giving time to F18, 18 seconds for each hour of racing.

So the difference in rating between a single handler F16 and a dual-handler one is *more* than the difference in rating between an F18 and an F16...

I'd say it's fairly close. And I think overall F18 sailors are better than we are, we need to improve to catch them up.

Its not a class killer at all as the amount of time is minimal but in my opinion the handicap rating of the single hander is tough, the two handed is probably about right for both single and dual. The maths unfortunately of SCHRS doesn't allow for the slower handling of sails etc by the single hander, but then no handicap system is perfect.

It just irked me a little to slowly but surely pass the F18 ahead only to find he then beats me on handicap.

Eric is certainly correct though in that we need to get better as sailors if we are to compete on more equal terms.

Hell just froze over. I didn't think I'd ever say Portsmouth is preferable to SCHRS.

That'll be a tough sell in the U.S.

I remember finishing behind you and beating you on handicap with my not quite F16 Stealth 'R' in club races. You didn't like it there either

With my 1.03 you owe me almost 3 minutes per hour of racing: I'm not sure I'm ever going to replace that pin head main

Who was racing the Viper? newcomers to the class?

"The maths unfortunately of SCHRS doesn't allow for the slower handling of sails etc by the single hander, but then no handicap system is perfect."

I can't grow two new hands, but the system can be modified.