With the Saturday forecast for rain
all day
and not much wind, our hard-working race committee decided to give us a
third race on the Friday, even though the wind had veered from NE to
almost
east and the whole trapezoid course had to be moved. Because the wind
had
veered and might veer even more to the right and because the wind was
blowing
along the south shore and should therefore be stronger near the shore,
Anders and I decided to go right on the first beat once again.
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Stephan and David (4898) check
out the
angle of the line to the wind as the countdown nears.
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Only a few seconds to the start
gun!
Many obviously feel that the boat end is favoured! Poor Gunnar Petersen
(4955) has been "barged out" but has done the right thing by not trying
to force his way into the mess at the committee boat. A risky approach
from the windward side of a crowded line for Stephan (yellow deck) -
will
he find a spot??? Things do not look good for one of the series
leaders,
Søren Jensen in 10212 (right)!
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At the gun: A virtually perfect
full-speed
start for Mikael Mogensen (if he wasn't over early!!) Stephan (4898) did
find
a spot on the line in time. Joel Bøgh (8278) looks like he's
been
caught barging but he'll still get across before Gunnar (4955)! Uncle
Al
(9355, between 5559 and 4898) is not moving well but is positioned
where
he wants to be - at the boat end - so that he can tack soon after
crossing
the line, and go right. No sign of Anders Friis???
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While Gunnar in 4955 prepares
to gybe
around the RC boat and start, the ladies in 6301, Ulla and Elisabeth,
have
made another excellent start and are threatened Mikael (5559) after his
perfect start. Steen Madsen (pink deck) seems to be moving well. Whistle
is at the far end of that mess somewhere.
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Elof and Karen Andersen
(foreground)
are moving well off the line
and will be in great shape if the wind
should
back (i.e. knock starboard tack).
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Not too much clear air to be
had in this
bunch!
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Uncle Al has tacked to leeward
of Jacob
Knudsen (1130) but looking at the water from this angle,
it doesn't seem like there's all that
much
wind over there!!
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Mikael Mogensen (5559), Steen
Madsen
(9067), John Friis (3264) and Per Christoffersen (4633)
stay on starboard tack and continue
towards
the left side...
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... as do Christian Bovet
(5128), Anders
Friis (222) and Ton Jaspers (4917), while Stephan Nandrup-Bus has
tacked
to at least clear his air. Note how Anders and Sune keep their weight
close
together in 222 as they pick up speed to try to recover from a bad
start.
Ton (4917) looks like his sails are in too tight considering the light,
disturbed air in which he is sailing.
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Meanwhile Uncle Al was sailing on a
lifted
port tack along the shore and looking pretty good - for a few minutes.
Then even the ever optimistic Anders began to sound concerned: "The
boats
to the left that waited much longer before tacking are now sailing
higher
than we are - but we seem to have better wind." Long pause...
"It
doesn't look good, Al. Now I think they have more wind over there and
are sailing higher." After some discussion, we decided to "bite the
bullet"
and tack across. No other boats for a long time but then they began
crossing
us - the first far ahead, but almost everyone at least ahead.
We
had to be in about 30th place or worse. But eventually we made it
across
into the much better breeze...
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... that was already being
enjoyed by
Kim Petersen in 4163 Tumle, Ole Højlund (5135)...
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... Paul Knowlson (9916) and
4633, Per
Christoffersen.
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There was not much to lose for
Anders and
me, so we sailed right out to the port tack lay line (see windward mark
in photo above) and tacked there. We seemed to get more wind than the
boats
further in and then got another rummer which didn't improve our sailing
angle since
we were already laying the mark, but it did make life tougher for the
majority
of the fleet which was now coming in to the mark on starboard. When Per
Larsen and Steen Ammentorp crossed us on their way to rounding in first
place, they were - amazingly enough - only about 100 metres ahead of
us,
and being pursued by Anders Friis (recovered from his poor start) and
several
others. Anders and I got Whistle around in about 7th place -
and
were ecstatic.
Not much to do on the short reach to
the
wing mark since the wind had backed quite a bit and it was now very
difficult
and probably not worth it, to fly the spi. And of course the "run" had
now become a starboard tack broad reach. But perhaps it was not "of
course",
since the leaders, Per and Steen gybed to port around the mark, and
Anders
and Sune made a rare mistake by following them. Leading the next group
that was about 30 m. behind Anders...
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... was Søren Jensen who
decided
to sail high to protect his wind from Steen Madsen and a couple of
others.
Meanwhile, Al chose to sail the rhumb line (straight mark to mark) as
(almost)
always, and ended up with clear air in the middle between the guys
fighting
it out on the left (Per og Anders), and the larger group on the right
(Søren,
Steen, Mogens and Poul and maybe one or two others)...
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... not to mention Stephan
(4898), Elisabeth,
Søren Jonasen (4123), Jacob Knudsen (1130)
and Mikael Mogensen (5559) who were
also
going high on starboard tack and definitely in the "hunt".
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Having lots of room (no other
boats nearby),
Al was nicely able to sail high in the lulls and down with the puffs,
and
soon passed the former leaders, Per and Anders, who had not only gone
at
a bad angle to the rhumb line but also sailed into weaker winds. The
windward
group was still ahead, however, but sailing each other rather high.
About
200 m. from the leeward mark, Al was having fun watching the fight over
first place among those boats and ventured the opinion that if he had
to
put money on it, he would bet that Steen Madsen would round first. You
could hear the smile in Anders voice as he replied: "And what about us??"
And sure enough...
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... about 100 metres from the
mark, it
looked like we (9355) might have a chance at buoy room on Steen (9067)
if we could stay ahead of Anders Friis (222) and Mogens Just (4645).
And
that's Christian Bovet also doing very well at the far right.
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About 50 metres from the mark,
Al luffs
up a bit to gain speed and try for that extra metre that would mean an
overlap on Steen and buoy room at the mark. I have always liked
Søren
Jensen (10212) but ...
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... never more than at this
moment when
he took Steen's wind and slowed him down enough to give us the inside
overlap!
With Poul Ammentorp (239), Anders Friis and Per Larsen all within just
two or three boatlengths of the overlapped top three, it was going to
be
an interesting second beat!!!
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