Queen Mary Sailing Club Spring Series Week 5
by Orlando Gledhill 9 Apr 00:05 NZST
7 April 2024
It was blowing a frisky 30 plus knots from the South West at launch time for week 5 of Queen Mary Spring Series, with gusts over 40 knots.
After discussion with the rather doubtful few who were even considering racing, the Race Officer decided to postpone onshore to see if the wind would moderate a little. It duly did ease to a much more manageable 15 to 25 knots and a diminished fleet of 10 (6 ILCA 7s; 4 ILCA 6s) launched on the East side a little after 11 am to avoid the onshore wind and waves and sailed around the bund to do battle on the West side over two three-lap races.
Race 9 of the 22-race series was sailed in 20-25 knots, with some bigger gusts to keep the fleet on their toes, with significant 30-degree plus shifts. The starboard end was slightly favoured at start time. Guy Noble won the start, accelerating away from Orlando Gledhill just to windward. Chris Ellyatt looked well positioned but tacked early and headed right. The left paid on the first beat and Guy Noble rounded first, with Orlando and Aaron Evans close behind. They had a good battle down the first run until a monster gust tipped Aaron in about three-quarters of the way down. That served as a warning to Guy and Orlando, but the warning was in vain, as Guy capsized when the same gust hit while gybing at the leeward mark and Orlando got stuck in irons during his chicken gybe.
Chris Ellyatt therefore duly led around the first leeward mark, with Orlando in pursuit. Chris led around the next windward mark until half-way down the first reach, when Orlando overtook to windward. Orlando and Chris rounded the leeward mark a couple of lengths apart and headed hard left on the last beat, Orlando content to cover. Aaron Evans had closed distance on the leaders and headed out right, sailing flat and fast. Orlando and Chris were on good compass numbers and ignored Aaron, who found a private right shift and almost crossed them both when all three came together near the windward mark. As it was, Orlando led round the last windward from Aaron by two lengths, with Chris another few lengths back. In the gusty conditions there was everything to play for down the last run. Orlando managed to pull ahead, leaving Aaron to just hold off a fast-charging David Surkov who seemingly came out of nowhere. Chris and Guy Noble were 4th and 5th, with Michael Pryer rounding out the ILCA 7s. Race 9 had 4 different leaders at various points, which speaks to how close the racing was, despite the conditions.
In the ILCA 6s, it was Andrew Whittaker leading Tom Nash and Rafa Matarazzo, with Dick Soderberg in 4th.
Before Race 9 had finished, the Race Team was already moving the windward mark left to square up the beat.
Race 10 started promptly, with a square line and the fleet headed out to the left. A left shift duly did dominate the beat, and Orlando managed to tack more-or-less on the lay line, with Guy underneath and Chris and Aaron to weather. That group arrived at the windward mark at about the same time, with Orlando rounding first. Guy managed to death roll on the bear-away—explaining it afterwards as leaning out too far in anticipation of a gust. The next event of consequence in the lead group was Orlando postponing his gybe at the gybe mark because of a serious gust and then managing to tip anyway 30 seconds later while gybing in what he over-optimistically hoped might be a lull. Aaron managed a capsize of his own on the second reach and for a while it looked as though Chris would again benefit from the boathandling mistakes of others and pull through to lead. However, Orlando managed to right his boat just in time and stay ahead by a few lengths at the leeward mark.
The last lap was a blur for the tiring competitors—suffice to say that it finished Orlando, Aaron, Chris in the ILCA 7s and Dick, Andrew, Tom in the ILCA 6s.
Results can be found here.