Playing Around
Red Funnel Race Report 25-27 March 2005
By Mark Denton
'Bow Girl Bethany!'
Saturday Race 1
It was with great pleasure that I joined the crew of Playing Around for days 2 and 3 of the Red Funnel – forecast was for light South easterlies although it took a
long while for them to settle in and we didn’t get our first race in until 1300 or so – at least it was stinking hot and bright sunshine – very easy to forget that
it was March. 1st race of the day went pretty smoothly with a good start, some good tactics, and everyone settling into their roles - new people aboard always upset
the balance a bit but we did well and a 5th in class– for me it was great to just be back out on the water after far too long.
Race 2
Second race we tried a few different things to make best use of the tide which had been running hard all weekend, not always paying off but worth it for the practice,
pulling an overall 7th.
Sunday
Day 3 promised to be a bit windier but as soon as we got near the committee boat the wind did it’s usual trick and died away to nothing…2 hours later around 12.30
it finally decided to settle in a Northerly direction allowing a start with the heavy number 1 as the breeze freshened.
But not before a general recall for the Super zero and zero classes, that saw IRC1 being advanced up the start sequence – only problem is that in our minds we were
sure that the start gun was our five minutes gun until we saw the rest of our class jostling for position. Luckily we weren’t far away and only crossed 15 seconds later…
However, as time went on, the breeze went light again and we probably should have changed to the genoa as we felt underpowered on the beat, but soldiered on to take a 7th.
1400 Hrs saw the final race which actually turned out to be pretty eventful – despite a good start, the breeze soon went light, allowing virtual pile ups at every mark and
a test of everyone’s racing rules knowledge – not that many we shouted at took any notice! So we bumped our way round these and were doing well until a halyard problem on a
kite drop threatened to kill us off unless we could get Kizzy up the mast quick sharp which Sarah did…managed to get back in it but finished in a lowly 15th…
But on the whole, a great weekend – and always ahead of the other 40.7, gaining an 8th overall for the series.
Much fun, great to meet you all, hope I’m back onboard when time allows v. soon!