#sb20 – After a cracking SB20 Easterns last weekend with 20 boats in the NYC (won in great style by the Dinghy Supplies team of Daragh, Shane and John), it was back to work in DBSC tonight and 9 boats gamely made it out for Thursday night racing - just one shy of the magic double figures - we will get there yet! With 60 minutes to go before the start, many competitors were wondering whether or not there would be enough wind to get them out to the start line on time however Windguru was true to its word and the wind picked up gradually throughout the evening and built to a very pleasant F3 from the north-east by the finish.
The OOD set a pin end bias and once again it was Venuesworld (Ger, Chris and Rory) that claimed the pin with Bad (Gerry, Jimmy and Enda) on their hip, drag racing out to the left hand side. Most of the rest of the fleet were left wallowing in their wake and several tacked off out right to clear their air. The wind was shifting through about 20 degrees with big gains and losses to be made up the first beat. Many of the boats that chose a middle route up the beat fared best. By the first weather mark, a 10 degree left hander meant that Venuesworld had pulled a few boatlengths ahead of the chasing pack with Probably (Ian, Billy and Mark) in second, Alert Packaging (Justin, Darren and Anonymous) in third and then a gap to SacreBleu (Richard, Ryan and Ben) in fourth, Should Be... (Michael, Owen and Gavan) in fifth and a few more boatlengths back Manamana (Ronan, Dave et al), Lupi d'Irlanda (Marco et al), Bad and Seriously Bonkers (Peter, Caroline et al) were fighting tooth and nail to get back into it.
The second leg was a broad reach all the way into Bay mark in Scotsman's bay and the fleet had the added challenge of navigating their way through the Dragon fleet en route to the mark. As it turned out, this gave the back markers a chance to get back into the mix as the leaders that chose to go high above the Dragons turned the leg into a run for themselves and had to gybe back against the strengthening tide. At the mark, Probably had taken over the lead and got a clean getaway up the next beat. They were followed by Alert Packaging and Venuesworld but an uncharacteristic slow "group" mark rounding by that pair allowed Should Be... to sneak inside at the mark and Sacre Bleu to get perilously close.
On the next beat, those boats favouring the right hand side including Probably, Alert Packaging and Should Be... hooked in to some more breeze and pulled a jump on the rest of the fleet. At the end of the beat as the boats turned onto the run it was Should Be... followed closely by Probably with Alert Packaging squeezing around ahead of Venuesworld and SacreBleu still nipping at the heels of the top four. The top four boats gybed shortly after the mark and an inspired call by Venuesworld to gybe back early down the run allowed them to make big gains and by the leeward mark they had passed out both Probably and Alert Packaging and were only a couple of boatlengths behind Should Be... Unfortunately for Venuesworld, they went too far right up the next beat, overstanding the weather mark which allowed both Alert Packaging and Probably to slip past into second and third respectively. From there, it was a straightforward run back home to pier mark and at the finish it was Should Be... in first followed by Alert Packaging in second, Probably in third, Venuesworld in fourth and SacreBleu in fifth.
SB20 Social
There is a plan to have an informal sailing supper next Thursday evening (29th May) after sailing in the NYC. Depending on the options, it will probably be sailing supper washed down with a few pints/glasses of vino. (The plan is to have sailing supper on the last Thursday of each month rotating amongst the clubs so pencil it into your diary now...) We did this on the last Thursday of the season in the George last year (thanks John O'Driscoll for the suggestion!) and it was a great success with about 20 thirsty sailors in attendance. Everyone is welcome, the more the merrier. Why not adopt an old SBer and bring them along?! Further details will follow during the week...
For those sailing in the RIYC regatta this Saturday, best of luck!
