IRC Nationals 2015 – Day 2 and 3

July 19, 2015

Saturday 18 July 2015 – After the strong winds on Friday, Saturday brought much gentler conditions with sunshine and light to moderate breeze. The wind was however unstable, both in strength and direction which made for challenging circumstances.

It proved to be a beautiful day of sailing. The first race was a ’round the cans’ type race and we were struggling to keep up and had our only double digit finish of the weekend, an eleventh place.

The second race was a normal windward-leeward race and we did much better in keeping up with the top boats in the fleet. However, as one of the slower boats in the class we had more difficulties in sailing our own race as we got rolled over by faster boats a couple of times. Still we managed to do reasonably well and scored a seventh place.

For the last race we were promised a windward-leeward race but in the end again got a ’round the cans’  type course. The last race was our best race of the day and we sailed well, keeping in touch with the fleet but just not managing to break into the top pack. We finished in fourth which left us in a shared fourth place on 24 points, only four points from the number two. A podium place was therefore still in the cards for us.

Sunday 19 July 2015 – The final day of the 2015 IRC Nationals. The day started with very little wind. Fortunately the wind started to build on the way out to the race course to a nice breeze of around 10 knots. This gradually built throughout the day to seventeen to eighteen knots. With plenty of sunshine this again made for Champagne sailing conditions.

During the start of the first race (Black) of IRC 1 we were clearly enjoying Invictus’ three attempts to cross the startline after an OCS too much as we ourselves had a terrible start. We were forced to bail out after being luffed out at the committee boat, tacking round and having to start at the back of the fleet. With the possibility of a podium place in mind we started a catch-up race by working the right side of the beat for tidal relief. We were closing in on the fleet but lost touch again when at the first windward mark we had to make two very expensive tacks against the strong tide to make the mark. After that we never really got in touch again but still pulled off a seventh place, something we hadn’t quite expected.

The second race (Green) went much better with a decent start at the committee boat end with opportunities to tack out to the right side of the beat. The right side of the course did however not paid off as much as we hoped for. We however kept in touch with the faster boats and sailed a good first run. We had a small mishap at the leeward gate and almost got the spinnaker in the drink. Good bow work however got the spinnaker in the hatch quickly and only the spinnaker sheets had to be redone upwind.

The third race (Red), was the first race with a reach start. We managed to keep the Girls on Sirene behind us on the first reach, although their Reflex 38 is supposed to be much quicker. The beat to Norris was OK. After the rounding of the first mark (E Ryde Middle) we were in some dirt, so we had to tack to get into clear air. To get back to the deeper water with more tide pushing us, we made some nice tacks along the Ryde Middle Bank. A nice lift got us to Norris. Then a thrilling kite ride across the Solent. We thought we had to go upwind an finish downwind, but the RC decided that the upwind mark (left/West) would be the Finish for our IRC 3 class. That was good for us, because we had to catch our flight. We came in in 4th place on correct time, which made us come 5th in our class.

 

It turned out that Peter Morton had won the championship, not only in our IRC 3 class, but also overall! Congratulations!

 

A quick clean up an a challenging ride across the Solent with Luna…. Herman was a little wet once we got to the Hamble.

It was good to see that we work well as a team, and even better to see that Harry’s general condition is improving.

Still we have to improve to get a nice result (WIN!) during Cowes Week. Let’s go for it.

 

thanks Harry, Laura, Leen, Boj, John, Floris, Hidde and Herman for a great weekend!

 

Regards,

 

Joost Dantuma