2004 Parhelion Spring Series
One More Knot wins a trophy!
We raced One More Knot, our Elan 333, in the Parhelion series, run by the Portsmouth Sailing Club. This page contains the racing exploits of our novice racing crew and our first race series.
Results
| Race | Date | Class Pos | No in Class | Handicap | OTW Time | OTW gap to 1st | Corrected gap to 1st | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parhelion race 8 | 24/4/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 1:57:46 | +23:31 | +25:18 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Barry |
| Parhelion race 7 | 24/4/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 0:52:17 | +02:44 | +07:08 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Barry |
| Parhelion race 2 | 17/4/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 0:48:38 | +00:42 | +04:58 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Barry |
| Parhelion race 6 | 17/4/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 0:48:45 | +01:39 | +05:51 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Barry |
| Parhelion race 5 | 17/4/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 1:04:05 | +01:37 | +07:09 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Barry |
| Parhelion race 3 | 3/4/04 | 2 | 2 | 1.000 | 0:57:55 | +13:48 | +17:44 | Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Les, Alan, Barry |
| Parhelion race 1 | 27/3/04 | 3 | 3 | 1.000 | 1:33:34 | +07:42 | +15:21 | Phil, Darrell, Les, Alan, Barry |
Race Reports
Saturday 27th March, Race 1
Crew : Phil, Darrell, Les, Alan, Barry
A very light wind day, with a 2 hour postponement waiting for some sort of a breeze to kick in. A course was eventually set with the start line at Spit Sand fort, then down to Saddle near Horse Sand fort. Back to the outer distance mark and then do it all again. Only one race was run.
Our race, with a novice racing crew, was all about learning. At the start, we were still trying to work out the course at the 5 minute gun. We were last across the line, but this let us tack out on port to catch a free ride on the tide in the deeper water. The leading boats stayed on starboard for much longer. We managed to get to back into the fleet on the way to saddle. We rounded Saddle, but our spinnaker hoist was poor. Eventually we got going and did ok. The second lap was better in terms of sail handling, although tactically we did the same as the first lap and didn't notice the significance of the wind shift until it was too late.
All good fun, last in class and probably the slowest on handicap but not quite last on the water. Still, plenty of room for improvement ... and we had proper Cornish pasties!
Saturday 3rd April, Race 3
Crew : Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Les, Alan, Barry
Unlike the previous weekend, this weekend had no shortage of wind, with F5-F7 on the menu. The IRC 1 fleet got away on their start, the club handicap and IRC 2 fleet shared a start. A basic upwind downwind course was set with 2 laps being the intention.
The OMK crew continued their racing learning experience with variety of good and bad points! The start was much better, but we still arrived at the line a few seconds too early, and had to ease the sails. It seems like the fleet gets to the line early on starboard and sails down the line and end up at the port hand end of the line. We don't seem to have the nerve to stick with it yet, so we tacked onto port behind all but one of the starters, into clear air, which help us stay with the fleet when we eventually cross tacks later.
With the strong gusty winds and choppy sea, Phil was struggling to hold a good upwind course, with the jib getting backed a couple of times, probably because we were trying to sail very fine, and had a slightly over powered main (set with 1 reef). We also had to bear away to avoid a cross channel ferry that had been messing around on anchor all morning with its engines running, but then decided to get underway as we approached. This cost us a couple of minutes!
At the top mark, we weren't the last boat to round. The wind was F5, and we were broad reaching at 8 knots. A relatively late spinnaker hoist saw the boat speed increase to about 10 knots and a noticeable gain on the boats around us. Then things started to go wrong! Firstly the guy tripped itself out of the end of the pole. It took a minute or so to sort it all out, with us running at 10 knots under a free floating kite. After sorting this out, we managed to get into a death roll and eventually broached. It took us some time to recover the kite, during which the wind increased to F7, gale warnings were heard on the VHF and the race was shortened to a single lap and abandoning for the rest of the day. We think we lost 10 mins or so recovering the kite. Our thanks to the PSC rib guys for keeping an eye on us, and our apologies for delaying their pint in the club. After we recovered the kite, we concluded by crossing the line at 11 knots under white sails.
Late that evening over dinner, we decided that maybe we were over doing the excitement factor! Maybe less risk next time out ........ but its all part of the learning experience. At least everyone was back safe and sound and no kit was broken.
Saturday 17th April, Races 5, 6 &2
Crew : Phil, Kev, Berit, Darrell, Barry
An interesting day with differing wind conditions, race 5 was held in F3, race 6 in F4 and race 5 in F5.
Our novice racing crew is learning all the time. We are trying to be more organised and make less time consuming foul ups. We have found the starts quite frantic affairs. We observed the course as soon as it was posted on the committee boat, only for it to be removed and then put back again! And then for the VHF to crackle into life to say that our start was to be combined with the IRC2 fleet, but with a (yet to be announced) course change. So much for trying to be organised.
Our start for race 5 was much better, but with 1.8 knots of tide trying to push us over the line, skipper Phil bottled it and got the sheets eased way too early ..... only to take the best part of a minute to start after the gun. A dash for deeper water seemed like a good move with reasonable clear air too. Up to the upwind mark, we were not last around the mark on the water, although we think the boat behind was in the IRC2 class. Downwind the other boats made more of a dog leg looking or shelter from the adverse tide. All the other boats seemed to be aiming for a different place, so Berit confirmed on the VHF the position of the leeward mark ..... it had moved !!! Our charts show the McMurdo mark to be south of the fort ..... but this year it is north of the fort! Still a correction to the course wasn't too bad. A minor slip up still on getting the kite down but all round not too bad, and a major improvement on the previous weekend's racing. At least we crossed the line in the midst of the other boats.
Race 6 was on the same course but had stronger winds (F4), and the lap times came down considerably. What was becoming clear is that our corners are not as slick as they should be, our upwind work is on a par with the other boats, with our faster handicap being offset by racing with cruising sails. However, downwind, we seem to be able to out drag our competition ..... but not by enough to overhaul them ..... yet?
Race 2, a catch up race for one that was lost in earlier in the series had much stronger wind. We changed down from our No. 2 to a No. 3, and were still doing the sail change just 2 minutes before the start gun. We crossed the line 54 seconds after the gun! After our previous experience with the kite, we elected to play safe and to keep the beast in the bag. The downwind leg had some nice 8.5 knot broad reaching.
All in all, a major improvement on the previous results, with the times getting consistently closer to the boats in front. Still plenty of room for improvement, but we have already made a lot of progress, Rhapsody ..... watch out ..... next week we are hoping to beat you .... at least on the water, if not on handicap.
Saturday 17th April, Races 7 & 8
Crew : Phil, Kev, Berit, Barry
Racing was for this weekend was East of the submersed barrier, south of Langstone Harbour. After practicing our starts before hand, the crew were up for a good start. With the 10 minute warning dialed in on the timer, the crew were focusing on being really on it for the first start. After approaching the line a little early, skipper Phil threw in a gybe & tack circle in front of the approaching fleet. It was looking good, except we had lost some way and the tide swept us down a bit further than we had anticipate. True to form, we messed up again and tagged the committee boats anchor rope ..... so much for a good start ! After 4 minutes delay to sort everything else, we were off in hot pursuit. We managed to close the gap on the water a bit ... but as expected not enough. Roy (Rhapsody's skipper) commented later that it looked like it was going to be a great start ..... until it went horribly wrong!
In the second race, race 8, feeling appropriately embarrassed after the first start the crew of One More Knot and her skipper were determined to make amends. We got a great run in onto the start line and had the opportunity to push Rhapsody over the line before the start. Kevin was calling for skipper Phil to push up hard. Roy on Rhopsody admitted later he was aware what was going on, and that we could have pushed them over. However the gentlemanly side of Phil's helming let them get away with it .... this time at least! With differing tides and fading winds, we seemed to get left behind but enjoyed a good head to head battle with Scallywag from the IRC 2 class. Rounding the windward mark for the second time seemed to be going well, but Electron V nicked our wind at the last minute and we had to throw in another tack to avoid hitting the mark. Just In Time won this race, maybe our start line antics with Rhapsody influenced the result after all.
After the racing it was back to the club house for a prize giving. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves with food and beer available. At the prize giving, Phil was unexpectedly first up, to receive a trophy for the efforts of our Elan 333, One More Knot and her crew.
Many of the crews were looking forward to the Autumn series. See you there!