Jack Langdon Trophy Race November 1, 2009

A beautiful day with blue skies, sunshine, flat seas and a 9-10 knot breeze set the stage for the last race of the SISC season.  The usual group assembled on the dock at 10.00 am and the wind was just beginning to build. EMPEZAR was the first boat to start at 10.34 followed by IMPOSSIBLE and KAY D at about 10.50 in lighter air.  The wind filled in at about 10.55 and so somewhat favoured the rest of the fleet.  ELECTRA and YOLANDA started fairly closely in that order after 11.04pm followed by SOUL THYME, OASIS and lastly CALIENTE. The breeze was now a consistent 8-10 knots from the SE and all boats were beating hard to BATT ROCK. The tide had just turned to a flood and in the building breeze the larger boats were able to almost catch up with or overtake the smaller boats before Batt Rock. ELECTRA rounded first with quite a lead followed by YOLANDA and KAY D with the rest of the fleet hard on their heels  Those boats which had chosen the left side of the course and had enjoyed slightly stronger air.  A beam/close reach enabled spinnakers to be set by most boats on the leg to Captain's Passage. Only KAY D and ELECTRA could carry their chutes all the way through the Passage and as a result gained some advantage. ELECTRA rounded Ben Mohr Rock ahead of KAY D who was just managed to sneak by YOLANDA at the mark. They were followed quite closely by a fast reaching OASIS and EMPEZAR.  CALIENTE had overtaken SOUL THYME and both were catching up fast after their later starts. IMPOSSIBLE was battling some problems. Philippe was soloing, sailing NFS, had decided to reef the main for a while and had found a kelp patch. It was clearly not his day.

The fleet close reached back to through Captain's Passage and then onward back to Batt Rock. The trick here was to start the sails and move the boat as fast as possible on a course slightly below the mark rather than to be close hauled. The  SE wind later permitted a better angle to the mark without a tack. CALIENTE was storming along and overtook many boats before Batt Rock. But ELECTRA was too far ahead to be caught on the downwind leg to the finish. She finished at about 1.37pm with CALIENTE about 8 minutes later followed quickly by OASIS, YOLANDA, KAY D, SOUL THYME, EMPEZAR and IMPOSSIBLE.

Now the real racing began off the SISC dock with IOM radio controlled boats. Martin Herbert  and Lawrie Neish had organized five IOM boats in a 'team' race with each IOM skipper and volunteer unskilled 'crews'. The crews quickly learned about the skills needed to control these sophisticated sail boats amid many yells screams and boat crashes. The loudest was Rheona and team Calientito so they must have won!

A great day all round.

Roger Kibble of ELECTRA