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The traditional
April start at
Bewl
Water SC blasted off the 2015 season, with a
good attendance, welcoming Owen Fackrell as a new racing member, and
John Coster back for more after starting in 2014. Six boats had a great practice
round the lake on Saturday 11th,
in fresh westerlies and sunshine (photo below) enough for some
steady trapezing, and eyeing up the potential opposition. George
Evans and Syd Gage travelled down to new racing water, George hunting TT
points campaigning his new Hyde sail.

Serious racing on Sunday 12th saw the
forecast WSW Force 6 begin to kick in during the morning, but varying
wildly. The Catapults again failed to fully pick up the starting signals with
only John Terry away well, followed by Alex Montgomery.
The late
starts made it difficult to gauge boat speeds across the fleet.
Over four laps of a triangular course, Alex pulled up to the front.
Behind, George Evans with his new Hyde sail gained gradually on Alastair
Forrest (photo below, left) racing away when
Alastair hit a hole in the breeze, and then building speed to push John
back into third. A touched mark put Alex back, and then George's boat
speed took him through to the win.
Further back, late starts gave their own race for Syd Gage chased by Owen
Fackrell, who gained on Syd (campaigning the unique Roundhead sail made
by John Peperall) (photo below.) Failing
to react quickly enough to one of the gusts tipped Alastair in, upwind
on the final lap, ending his event early (see photo and cautionary notes at bottom
of page.)

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(Above: George hunts
Alastair down, Race 1)
(Above: Owen Fackrell's distinctive main gets going.)
By
Race 2, the wind had steadied to a strong breeze,
Force5 gusting 6, putting the boats at their limits, and only Alex and
George stayed out for the back-to-back start, getting away well and
battling closely round the same course, George surviving a ferocious
gybe to push Alex to the finish (photo below, Alex holding a
few yards advantage to the final stretch.)

RESULTS
Place
Race 1 Race 2 Total
1 Alex Montgomery 2
1 3
2 George Evans
1
2 3
3 John Terry 3
DNS 11
4
Syd Gage
4 DNS
12
5
Owen Fackrell 5 DNS
14
6 Alastair Forrest
DNF DNS
15
7
John Coster
DNS DNS 16
Below: Fleet
away, Race 1

Below:
The aftermath of Alastair’s capsize and failed righting efforts. He has
had time to think of the lessons, while drifting to shore and getting
safety boat assistance.
Some are:
-- Prepare the boat fully for
sailing in strong winds. (He had not renewed the “tags” securing the
centreboards in place, and had to flounder around retrieving one,
further delaying recovery.) (He lost his hi-spec woolly hat
as well.)
-- Tie the mast foot tightly down
into the socket; the strong forces with the mast fully canted while
capsized eventually flipped it out.
-- Ensure that the topmast
is fully watertight;
in the slow recovery, the mast leaked, and finished any possibility of
recovery.
(See article on
Mast
Buoyancy -Testing and Sealing)
-- Know the righting sequence so well that
it can be done quickly when upside down, and in the water.This means
knowing the overall plan, the exact ropes to access, and where they will
be with the boat over or on its side.

The boat went fully inverted, so the mast had to be canted one way to
give buoyancy to lift one hull, which was initially successful----then
it needed to be canted the other way to tilt the trampoline back, to
climb up. But thinking this through in the crisis was slow, and although
the boat came back from fully inverted, by that time the mast had water
in it, so was not giving reliable buoyancy, so that in turn jumping back
into the water, to get at the shroud controls to recant the mast did
not seem practicable---but equally, there was no way the boat could be
pulled up with the weight of the trampoline going the wrong way.
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