#sb20 – The SB20 fleet were treated to an exhilarating, white-knuckle ride on Dublin bay on Sunday afternoon in conditions gusting over thirty knots writes Michael O'Connor.
OOD Barry O'Neill and his team of Fionnuala Loughrey, Cathy Booth and Barbara Conway kept a watchful eye on the wind and pressure readings all morning and after careful consideration, the call was made to go racing. The committee boat team made their way up towards Seapoint for a more sheltered race area and set a windward leeward course with a standard leeward mark rather than a leeward gate.
The boats got away at the first time of asking with Venuesworld (Ger, Chris et al) taking the favoured pin with Should Be... (Michael, Owen, Peter and Dave) just to weather of them and SacreBleu (Ben et al) further to weather still. The boats raced out towards the left hand side of the course with Venuesworld and Should Be... going all the way to the layline and SacreBleu tacking 10 boat lengths to leeward of the layline. Should Be... managed to squeeze out a narrow lead over their rivals at the weather mark and as the boats rounded onto the run, the kites went up without hesitation (!). As the boats blasted down the run at speeds easily into the high teens, the three leaders gybed before a monster gust came through knocking both Should Be... and Venuesworld over on their ear while SacreBleu showed everyone how it should be done and skilfully kept the boat under the mast and screaming towards the leeward mark, skipping past their rivals. At the leeward mark, SacreBleu had taken the lead from Venuesworld with Should Be in a close third. With the wind now beginning to howl, the OOD signalled a shortened course and SacreBleu took a well deserved gun from Should Be..., who had managed to squeeze past Venuesworld, in second and Venuesworld in third ahead of Bad in fourth.
In the absence of the forecast easing of the wind strength, there was a question over whether or not to continue but after some deliberation the decision was made to run a second race. In race 2, Bad attempted a port tack start but just couldn't make it past Venuesworld and tacked just to leeward of them as the fleet made their way out left again. Should Be... tacked out to the right side of the course and made some gains on the fleet after a sluggish start. At the weather mark, Venuesworld led by a boat length from Should Be... with Bad and SacreBleu a few boatlengths further back. Once again, the boats decided to throw up the kites and be damned... A few short minutes later the boats were approaching the leeward mark and Venuesworld still held a short lead from Should Be... with SacreBleu and Bad in a tussle for third. Up the second beat, Should Be... managed to work their way ahead of Venuesworld and SacreBleu won their tussle with Bad for third. Down the last sleigh ride, Venuesworld expertly gybed off early into a rich vein of breeze and when the boats converged at the leeward mark, they had overtaken Should Be... once more. The short beat to finish didn't provide any further overtaking opportunities and the top three in race two were Venuesworld from Should Be... with SacreBleu in third.
The OOD decided that the fleet had had enough fun for one day and called the very happy but exhausted sailors ashore, many commenting on how it was the best thrill ride of the season and hoping for more of the same next weekend at the Westerns in Galway.
SB20 Class notices:
Next weekend (23rd & 24th) we have the Westerns in Galway and we are hoping for a great turnout. Galway never, ever disappoints and it is sure to be a cracking event. Here's hoping for big wind and big waves to go with the mighty craic!
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to make up last Sundays lost SB Sunday (no. 8) with a replacement day. However, the intention is to run 4 shorter races each day on SB Sundays 9 and 10 so that series three will constitute 8 races instead of 9 and a second discard will be able to be applied (I believe) making for a closer, more enjoyable series.
Look forward to seeing you all next Thursday for the penultimate Thursday race of 2014!
