Ripon Sailing Club Single Hander Open
by Graham Lamond 18 Oct 2023 05:07 UTC
14 October 2023
Ripon Sailing Club held its second Single Hander Open Meeting on Saturday 14th October. Bright sunshine and a brisk north-westerly breeze sadly didn't tempt any visitors, but 13 home boats turned out to enjoy an exciting 3 race series with a tense finish to determine the winner.
A range of classes were represented, with Solo, Streaker, OK, Aero 7, ILCA 7, International Moth and Supernova making up a mixed fleet. The steady wind direction allowed the race team to set courses using the full length of the lake to give a long beat and some hairy downwind rides in the powerful gusts that swept across the water. The rescue team was kept busy as a number of boats capsized at various points around the course.
In the first race, Richard Oliver in his ILCA 7 made a good break after the start to win both on the water and corrected time from Ian Priest in his Streaker. Ian hit back with a win in race two after a close battle with his wife Lucy in her Streaker to take the gun by 21 seconds.
Richard Oliver was third after a promising race lead was lost when he capsized but managed to recover enough for the final podium place.
Going into the final race it was all to play for between the top three.
Unfortunately, Ian was unable to sail, being required to do Dad duties ashore, whilst wife Lucy had missed the first race on Mum duty. The strong winds and frequent capsizes meant that exhaustion had set in for many and there were only 5 takers for the last race, with one of those retiring after a capsize when their rudder fell off.
Richard and Lucy soon stretched out a good lead over the pursuing Solo of Steve Jackson and Duncan de Boltz in his International Moth. There was a furious tacking duel up the beats and desperate covering battle downwind between Richard and Lucy. Richard got away, then capsized, allowing Lucy to get past. Richard then caught her up downwind when she dropped the mainsheet and stalled the boat to avoid a capsize. Still Lucy held on, defying Richard's every effort to pass her. Eventually, he managed to break free at the final rounding of the windward mark.
The question now being, could he get away enough to save his time on handicap? The running commentary in the race hut was worthy of Five Live as the two leaders ran downwind. Richard got to the gybe mark cleanly while Lucy fell into a brief hole and stalled enough to let Richard get away on the reaching leg to the final mark. On rounding, Richard headed up close to the shore whilst Lucy tacked out into the lake. This was a decisive move as the slightly better air allowed her to close on Richard in the chase to the line. Richard crossed first, but his gap of 42 seconds wasn't enough on corrected time and Lucy gained the win as just reward for her efforts.
After an exciting day, the top three all finished on a net 3 points, with Lucy's win in the last race allowing her to take the event overall, with Richard Oliver second and Ian Priest third. A great day's sailing in glorious sunshine and some aching muscles for all who took part.