Victory for Chardonnay Girl (From Falmouth Packet)

Victory for Chardonnay Girl

6:00pm Tuesday 7th July 2009

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The fourth race in Mylor Yacht Club’s mid-summer series sponsored by Mylor Chandlery and Rigging took place in perfect conditions.

While still light, there was distinctly more wind than in the previous three races and that showed in the results as, of course, every type of boat has its optimum wind strength.

Race officer Bernie Bagley set the longer south-west courses for classes E and U that include four beats and five off-wind legs with two gybe marks providing plenty of work for crews handling spinnakers. Q and G/H classes sailed similar but slightly shorter courses.

Recounting the action in E class, Peter Pope, skipper of Alexis writes, “The six boats in hot contention got away cleanly. Alexis led up the first beat with Chardonnay Girl and General Khaos close behind. The steady force 2 – 3 enabled spinnakers to be flown on the off-wind legs providing a useful advantage for some. Alexis maintained her lead on the water but dipped to second on corrected time behind this week’s winner Chardonnay Girl. Chris Horn’s Otologic was third.” The U class fleet of ten boats were mostly keen to exploit the slight starboard line bias. Had there not been a lull in the wind as the signal went the combination of luffing tactics and ebb tide might well have caused problems for some.

Nibbler and Sapphire crossed tacks up the first beat and remained close throughout the first round, Sapphire just edging ahead at the gate. By the finish, Sapphire’s lead had increased to just over a minute but the correction calculations knocked her down to fourth. Nibbler held second after correction with Xanadu just 20 seconds behind in third while the Beneteau 211 Sirius, fourth on the water, was promoted to first place. Although they sometimes have their moments in light airs, the two Contessa 26s, Mary Boon and Hera obviously needed considerably more wind to shine in this race and were well down in sixth and eighth. The story in Q class is taken up by Chris Davis. “The race was decided, for all practical purposes, at the start. Several boats misjudged the tide setting them down towards the line and either were, or thought they were, over the line. The resulting manoeuvres allowed Pallisander, who had deliberately held back to account for the tide, a clear run to the line at speed. Thereafter, the race was not in doubt. Although Suce set her spinnaker rounding St Just to take the lead from Pallisander and line honours, positions were reversed on handicap.”

In G/H, Rosen looked a fine sight with her red and white topsail set and she charged around the course to beat Grace of St Just by nearly a minute on corrected time.

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