Hot Rum Race 2005

HOT RUM RACE, Saturday, 1st January 2005

What a fantastic and unexpected start to 2005! At 0800 it was a dull grey morning with little wind and a light snow falling.

I think most of us were heading to our boats more in hope than anger. At the skippers meeting more and more skippers

and crew arrived at the head of the pier and a wind started to fill in from the northwest.

A course that would see us back at the clubhouse soon after 1200 was called for and so we elected to use Welbury Spar,

Horda Shoal and home. Fifteen boats crossed the line at 1030, many with spinnakers flying and some with spinnakers needing

crew training. The wind improved as we reached Second Sister and the wind was such that the brave could hold onto the big

sail for a reach to Welbury. FINAL DASH and ALACRITY were in close company and leading the pack at 6.8 knots.

Sheets were eased a little for the leg to Horda Shoal and FINAL DASH roared past ALACRITY to execute a flawless spinnaker

take-down-and-jibe round the mark onto the windward leg home. The fleet was stretched out by this time and we noticed both

FANDANGO and WESTWIND having their moments with reaching spinnakers. CAT DANCER with a cast of thousands and

DERYN MOR single-handing, were both having a good race holding off larger vessels. ELECTRA who had a late start started

to work her way through the fleet.

We had four new racers out today and we truly hope that they enjoyed themselves and will try again. They were TARA’S WHISPER,

a cal 27 sailed by Mario; MADRIGAL sailed by Brian & Julie ( ex crew of WESTWIND); BLUE PETER sailed by Derek & Jennifer Barrio;

KHADINE sailed by Jon & Jennifer Healey and the truly stately Atkins CLARE d’ LUNE sailed by Jim and Randy but on this occasion

guest skippered by Stuart Farson.

It was a grand beat up the harbour, the snow had ceased and the wind held. FINAL DASH was able to hold off ALACRITY to take

line honors. There were also close finishes between ELECTRA and FANDANGO plus AQUILA MIA and SOUL DANCER.

Most boats were home by 1230 and we all proceeded to the clubhouse where the Hot Rum lunch was getting under way. It was an

excellent meal put on by Arlene Dashwood and her fine band of helpers which really completed what was a grand day on the water

with the best turnout of boats that we have seen for a long time.

The results sheet is taking on a new look and needs some explanation. Starting on the left it shows how the club handicap rating is

obtained. (Some corrections to PHRF will be needed). We then show the boat and ELAPSED TIME (not finish time). It is generally

agreed that Time-on-Time is the better scoring system and where this is so, the Time-on-Distance section will just show elapsed time.

The Time-on-Time section will show the corrected time in race order. I still have to work out how to add the points automatically in a

new far right column and do some cleaning up.

The results for today’s event are below. Comments are welcome.

Bob Jones

ALACRITY

3rd January, 2005