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Highlights:
Our starts. Utterly brilliant, thanks to a helm with steady nerves and years of experience. (Helped a little by his brother, tactician for the day).
Downers:
Lack of wind in the first three races. Not getting line honours for every race. Jackal: 2, Kamulla; 1, Gambit; 1
Result:
Fourth and then third later after the race result error was found. No glory on the day for us then!
Lessons Learnt:
If you have a significant part of the Royal Navy at your disposal, use that resource. After all, those years of training financed by a government has to be put to good use.
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Our hidden weapon: Lt. Cdr., Adam Lunn, Royal Navy. Visiting from Oman to make sure we all follow orders ! Note the extra insignia he insisted we organise at the last moment. As if a chest full of sponsor logos wasn't enough.
Wanna see some pictures?
Just click to visit the Regatta Gallery 2005
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Bahrain Yacht Club Regatta 2005. Thursday 12th and Friday 13th May
Wind 3-8 knots, South easterly, becoming 8-13 knots later.
It's the usual BYC Regatta format: Four short races around the cans, with one scratch to determine winners based lowest points on handicap. So we'll probably come fourth again. Always the bridesmaid.... Anyway it's a fun event and we'll get some good on-water tussles with the bigger boats, 'Kamulla' and 'Gambit', from Kuwait. It's always fun toying with them, if a little nerve wracking - we've managed to hold our own in the past, but they might have practised more than us for this one...
Thursday lunchtime sees us register, grab the goody bags and get out on the water for a 14:30 start. Postponed due to lack of wind! Some last minute bouy shifting by our OOD sees the 10-minute flag at 14:40 so we don't have to hang around that long. It's hot and we drift slowly around the committee boat.
But, besides Hamish and Andy, we have a surprise weapon aboard, flown in especially from Oman for the event. My brother; Lt. Cdr. Adam Lunn, Royal Navy. And he can sail. Being a natural born leader, Adam quickly controls the situation; appoints himself tactician and lets rip with a few 'suggestions' (These are actually orders, but in the RN its a bit 'Napoleonic' to just say "look I'm ordering you to do this now"). So we sail along the line as 'suggested', find the pin-end favoured and start practicing timed runs to the mark for a port start. This includes taking transits and all sorts of stuff that isn't in Sailing for Dummies - even though I have read it in other books... I know this stuff as well, really I do.
So there we are, right on the start, right on the nail, on Port, with the rest of the fleet coming at us rather fast on Starboard. But our timing is very good and we slip through ahead of them, into clear air (such as it is when it's only blowing about 2 knots) and start settling down for the windward mark. A tack or two later, coming into it on port we tangle with both Kuwaiti boats on Starboard; execute a really smooth leeward tack to control; think about calling for water as we have overlap, and then notice that the tide is sweeping us straight onto the mark. So around we go, a 360 to try again. The rest of the race is spent on 'catch-up' where we suffer on the downwinds because we have to sail angles and can't keep enough pressure in the bitch to maintain boatspeed... But on the second last leg we're rescued by the wind. Ahead of us, both Kuwaitis have their spinnakers up on the top 'reaching' leg, when suddenly the wind shifts by 70 degrees to a beat forcing all kinds of sail flapping disasters as we sail past (having of course noticed that the wind was just about to do exactly what it did and thus decide not to launch the bitch) and finish first on the water. A close call though, but don't tell them Kuwaitis. Honour now reasonably intact, we head for the Bar.
Friday is the main day of the event. With three races on the water, we'll see some good close racing, fine winds and sportsmanship par excellence. It's still blowing about 2 knots....
The next two races are pretty much the same as yesterday. Adam does his pre-start 'suggested' tactics (which we, of course, follow without question) and we start on Port for the first race, starboard for the second. In both races we finish second on the water. Kamulla just pipps us on one and Gambit runs away from us on another. But through the racing we give them a hard time, and manage to make them work a bit before we all head in to the Club for lunch.
The wind is just about zero now and there's talk of cancelling the last race, but suddenly it does exactly what it did yesterday: Swings around to the North West and fills in to a good 10-15 knots. Everyone races out for a panic 15:00 start to take full advantage of this lovely wind. We change down our jib. This is going to be a stomper of a race. Short course, good wind...
And, yes, you guessed it. The pin end is favoured and the 'suggestion' is, once again, to start on port. Thus chucking away any right-of-way safety, exposing ourselves to dozens of other boats who are all going to start on Starboard - guaranteed when there's a good wind. Transits are taken, practice runs made again and we scream in to the line at full boat speed; ducking the stern of one boat and squeezing through just ahead of the bows of a horde of bigger boats all yelling starboard (they're miles/metres away - no chance) and shoot into clear air. This time we have wind, and we continue to accelerate right around the course, sailing our own race, and finish well ahead in just 40 minutes. This is a blast - even getting the hull 'hum' under spinnaker. The chaps are excited. This is how to finish off a very 'slow' regatta.
Well, it's been a day of starts and 'suggestions'. I must say, the crew have really put up with things quite well, considering they've never met my brother before - well not in on-water-tactical mode anyway! But we have to admit it; all that RN training on how to make 'suggestions' really paid off today. So we came 4th. Always the Bridesmaid. Robbed of glory on the podium by just one point.
Until the next day when Ken phones and says, "terribly sorry, but in one race I gave another boat +40 for no-spinnaker, except my finger slipped and I gave them +400. Now that I've noticed that, you actually came third".
Right, where's our beautifully inscribed prize tankard?
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