Laser: hotdogs

The Wednesday evening Hot Dog series at South Cerney got off to a fine start yesterday evening. So called, it turns out, because there are actual hot dogs, fresh from the BBQ, available from the (outdoors, under present circumstances) bar after racing. That's an approach to sailing of which I can only approve.

It was a lovely evening; blue sky, light breeze, but from the east so still carrying a definite chill and very fickle and shifty. Amanda had to work late, and will do for most of this month, so the Albacore got to rest ashore under cover and I got to play with my Laser for the second time in a week.

The race committee, conscious of the limited light still of an evening, and keen to get things moving opted to run the race from ashore, with a start line running out from the committee hut. By definition, that meant for a "reaching start"; always a horrid, chaotic thing.

They then compounded the drama by setting the most simplistic of courses, a straightforward triangle, with all three mark rounding to starboard.

I elected to start at the windward end of the line, the alternative would've been the pin end amongst the crowd and whilst that would've given me a chance of getting an inside line at the first mark, the mob would've left my laser smothered in the filthy air of a score or more of (mostly larger) boats.

The first lap went exactly as you'd expect from a reaching start with no beat to windward to break up the fleet. I edged slightly ahead of most of the pack, reached the three boat zone with just a Wayfarer beneath me to claim room but an absolute mass of boats just astern. The Wayfarer, for some reason I either couldn't see from my own vantage point or reasons best known to himself, then elected to then give room to the lot of them, pinning me out and forcing me to overshoot by a half dozen boat lengths.

Gybing onto starboard, I hardened up beneath his stern for the next leg and rode over him and the rest of the armada to windward, slowly edging back up through the pack, but now caught to windward of the Wayfarer, with a smaller, lighter Aero just to windward of me.

Which was fine, until we hit the three boat zone of the next mark. I needed enough room to give the Aero space to pass between me and the mark, but the Wayfarer, who in turn owed me room couldn't give it because of the huge press of boats on the outside of him. By the time he'd given me space, he'd pushed me so far up to the Aero (who, in turn, may have taken the mark a little wide but I couldn't tell) that he couldn't bear away without his transom swinging into me. So we touched.

The final leg, for all the fuss and drama and poor design of the first two, turned in to a surprisingly good beat. With an eye to finding clear air and keeping good speed I followed the wind up the course until I had space enough to do my turns. I'm not convinced they were owed and nobody was calling for them, but somebody owed somebody turns and nobody else was offering.

The rest of the race was sweet. I spent it chasing the Aero that had touched me, closing but never quite catching, working hard to stay clear ahead of the Wayfarer that continued to dog my tail for the remainder of the race, and playing cat and mouse with an RS200, whom I generally caught on each beat, but who caught me back every time we settled back down on to one of the two reaches. But when the finish finally came, just as the sun was beginning to set, I caught her one final time on the last beat, and had the satisfaction of beating her over the line.

I still don't yet know how I did. With a handicap race, the timings have to all be kept and noted for the results to be calculated, and as it turns out there was some confusion over this with the race committee. I'm sure they'll sort it, but when I last checked a short while ago, the results still hadn't been published to the Club's website.

These things happen. We're all volunteers when it comes to the organising of these things, and we're all a little bit out of practice. I'm sure they'll get it all sorted. I, in the meantime, had a lovely race, and am really looking forward to doing it all again next week.