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2007 Maylandsea Kestrel Open At 7am on Saturday the 8th of September campers awoke to find a light mist hanging in the air being gently blown along by a light force one to two which slowly decreased through out the day. The four boat fleet was addressed by the race officer at around 8:30 who set a course that took us out of the creek onto the main river with us finishing just off Osea Island. The first race got underway at 9:15 and the fleet splitting early with Chris Grice and Dave Hearsum heading up the west side of the creek and John Weedon and Duncan Wilson going up the east side. The fleet came out of the creek and down to steeple with Dave in the lead followed closely by Chris. The fleet then headed up to Doctor with Dave still in the lead, once the fleet had rounded Doctor for the first time only Dave and Chris seemed to be in contention but by the time the fleet had rounded steeple for the second time John Weedon had started hauling in the lead boats and he over took them on the final lead heading back up towards Doctor to win the race. Dave having led the race for most of the race left me in no doubt that “we was robbed”. The second race started at about 11am and saw the fleet head off towards Doctor with no clear leader. Dave and Chris reached the mark first with Duncan close behind but strange winds and a gamble by John meant that he led towards the next mark but on the wrong side of the river. In the end it was Chris and Duncan who reached the mark first with Dave and John close behind. The fleet rounded the next mark with Chris in the lead still followed by Dave, John and Duncan. The fleet jostled for position on the way down to steeple with Duncan’s novice crew Paul (who’d never flown a spinnaker before) finding the dieing wind and pulling them ahead for a while until the breeze filled in again and let the rest of the fleet catch up. Chris rounded steeple in first place with Dave in “hot” pursuit followed by Duncan then John. Chris and John managed to find the remaining wind and started to pull away from Dave and Duncan who had headed off on a different tack. Dave eventually started to pull back but it was too late. Chris crossed the line in first with John in second and Dave in third, at this point the wind vanished and Duncan was left to battle the tide in almost nothing, as a result he crossed the line some 20mins after the others despite sailing well and rounding the last mark in third. With the wind almost zero and the tide rapidly receding it was a battle to get back in and although all the kestrels made it three men from the sand hopper class who where sharing the event, got marooned and had to spend the next six or seven hours in the rescue boat stuck in the mud with nothing but half a flask of orange juice and a pack of polos. The next morning crews and helms awoke to find a blustery force 0 facing them and in due course sailing was abandoned in case of injury. The results where therefore worked out on the previous days sailing, so in fourth with two fourths was Duncan Wilson, in third was Dave Hearsum, second came John Weedon and in a well deserved first came Chris Grice. The lack of wind was an obvious disappointment but at least those who were absent didn’t miss too much, lets’ hope there are more people next time. Callum Wilson
P.S Dave is right we was robbed. |