Portishead Cruising Club - Winter Race 5

Sat 10th February 2007 - Winter Series #5 (last race)

Racing in my regular crew spot on board Aquila (Westerly GK29), Andy, Huw Chris and myself locked out at 1000 of Portishaed Marina with Gareths's Best Endeavour (Sunfast 32), Matt's Spring Fever (MG Spring 25) and Petes Drama Queen (Bavaria 38). Surprisingly the conditions were bright and sunny with a gentle South Westerly blowing around 10 knots, although the weather was expected to break in the afternoon. We all motored over to the start line by the Avonmouth signal station avoiding a contatiner ship under tow for Portbury. Race start was delayed by 7 mins to ensure our course didn't interfere with port operations, course #4 being selected which takes us from the start to Cockburn (port), West Dock Middle (starboard), Firefly (starboard) and finish giving us a distance of around 3.5nm. Dave (White Spirit) who was leading the series, joined us fom the PCC moorings with spinnaker ready to fly for the first downwind leg. We, on Aquila stayed close to the line with furled genoa, spinnaker and pole rigged to port and on the gun crossed the line within the first 10 secs of the race. Best Endeavour got an even better start and even though not flying a chute, got to Cockburn 10 boat lengths ahead of Aquila who was followed by Drama Queen, Spring Fever who also flew her chute and close behind White Spirit. Rounding the mark we had the chute doused and sails set for a beat for West dock middle, our dilemma being whether to follow Best Endeavour for portbury pier or stay on course past Cockburn heading down channel but in strong adverse tide. We decided to head for the pier but the tide was setting us back to the River Avon so we decided to tack which in actual fact gave us a good course for the next mark as the wind had increased slightly and backed South. before we got to the mark we had to tack to pass it to starboard so we headed for the back eddy to help us towards the marina and the next mark Firefly. Depending on the wind direction and particulalrly if the course includes Denny Island it sometimes pays to keep close to the shore to maximise the back eddy, but today we set a course that was the shortest distance to the mark allowing for the tide. Meanwhile Andy repacked the chute ready for the final leg to the finish. Approaching the mark, Best Endeavour passed us on the way back and flew her chute, now having increased her lead to about 3 minutes. Huw brought us close enough to read the serial number on Firefly! and then bore away closely followed by Drama Queen. We had the chute up again with the pole to staboard and almost touching the forestay and reached a few points to port off our preferred course but giving us good boat speed of around 4knots. SOG was about the same so the tide was starting to turn early possibly from the amount of rain run off we've had recently. We hung on to the chute as long as possible with Drama Queen keeping pace under genoa but on a shorter course until we felt with the wind shifting again we needed to get the genoa up. The drop wasnt one of our best totally engulfing Huw on the helm who for a short period had totally dissapeared under sail cloth! Deciding it was probably best if the helm could see where he was going, we stowed the chute below, however the delay had allowed Drama Queen to take us to windward and gain 5 boat lengths and continue to make ground all the way to the line. Best Endeavour crossed first followed by Drama Queen, Aquila, Spring Fever and White Spirit. On handicap, Best Endeavour won, followed by White Spirit, Spring Fever , Aquila and Drama Queen. In true Aquila fashion win or loose we hit the booze so arrived back in the marina lock to the musical accompaniment provided by empty beer bottles! A great mornings race in unusually spring like weather completed back at the club with White Spirit buying the port for winning the series. Next race Sat 24th Feb.