Races at Grafham Water

Races at Grafham Water Sailing Club, May 25th and 26th 2024,
by Dave Bardwell

The Wanderer fleet gathered for their inaugural Open Meeting at Grafham Water Sailing Club over the weekend of 25th and 26th of May.
Saturday afternoon initially provided shifty light breezes from the West North-West, backing as the wind speed steadily increased. This caused the Race Officer to shift marks between the four scheduled 45-minute duration back-to-back races. The three-lap course had four marks laid, with a beat, a tight two-sail starboard reach, a broad starboard three-sail “runny” reach, then a gybe onto a tight port three-sail reach before a beat through the committee boat gate.
In the first race, Colin and Sally Gilbert in 1819 enjoyed the best start, and they led at the first mark by four or five boat lengths from Ian Simpson and Dave Bardwell in 1004, who then broached on the following tight reach after unwisely hoisting their spinnaker. This allowed the Gilberts to extend their lead. Steve Nott and Steve Wingham in 1841, enjoying their first Wanderer open meeting, were next to round the windward mark. As newcomers to Wanderer racing, Ben and Sarah Nicolle were getting to grips with 1609 on the first beat, in close company with Richard and Jonnie Elliott in 718. The Gilberts were all set to take the bullet after having led for all three laps, but in a dramatic nail-biting finish, they could not stop Simpson and Bardwell sailing over them in the last 200 m of the final off-wind leg, then rounding the leeward mark a nose ahead to cross the finish line with just a ten-second gap. Meanwhile, Nott and Wigham in 1841 managed to hold off the Elliotts in 718 to take third, with the Nicolles in 1609 not far behind this pair.
Races two and three followed a similar pattern at the front, with the Gilberts swapping places on the first beat then allowing Simpson and Bardwell to gradually pull out leads on the off-wind legs to win by more comfortable margins than race one. Notably in race two, the Elliotts managed to push Nott and Wingham down to fourth place, whilst the Nicolles were still tuning up their new boat in fifth place for both races. The Race Officer elected to maintain the start line position throughout the afternoon, to cut down on delays between races. This posed some interesting challenges for the fleet as the wind gradually backed with time. For the fourth race, with the line now heavily port-biased, the Gilberts got away to a pin-end flyer, tacking onto port with the rest of the fleet and leaving Simpson and Bardwell struggling to even lay the line on starboard 30 seconds after the hooter. With the fleet following the Gilberts to the starboard side of the course, Simpson and Bardwell carried on to the port side where the wind was filling in more strongly, then tacked on a large shift which carried 1004 towards the windward-mark and across the bows of 1819, much to the Gilberts’ collective chagrin. Nott and Wingham showed good upwind speed to round the windward mark in third place, then held their nerve and spinnaker down the first tight reach. Jonnie Elliott was enjoying a spell on the tiller of 718, but came off second best in a bit of nip and tuck round the course with the Nicolles, who had kept their spinnaker stowed this time round.
Sunday dawned with light showers and a forecast of thunder and lightning later in the day. The breeze was now blowing more strongly and from the South South-East. The Wanderers were set for two races of two laps around a four-mark course, and were starting with the club’s Flying Fifteen fleet. Simpson managed to squeeze the Fifteens out of the favoured committee boat end “pole” position and arrive at the windward mark amongst the Fifteen tail-enders, whilst the Gilberts made a strong start lower down the line but were somewhat back-winded by the Fifteens above them. The irrepressible Richard Elliott, now crewed by Ros Wilmott, showed great resilience in finishing the race in great style, but couldn’t hold off Nott and Wingham, who increased their margin on the spinnaker legs. For race 6, and with the Gilberts starting to tire in the increasing wind strength, Simpson and Bardwell again arrived at the windward mark just behind the Fifteens, and pulled out a strong lead by planing down the following three-sail reach. This time, the fleet were more spread out at the finish, but the positions remained unchanged from race 5.
This was the first Wanderer Open at Grafham Water Sailing Club and a fine two days of sailing had been enjoyed by the fleet, with a vast expanse of windy water available, good race organisation, ample safety boat support (thanks to Mike and Lesley Bennett for assisting), superb off-water facilities and a very welcome three-course dinner on Saturday night. Thanks also to Jonathan and Trish Knights for sterling service on the committee boat on Saturday. And to Chris Clarke and his team for running the racing on Sunday