Staunton Harold Enterprise Open - Flies, a Jury and we're all late home for tea

Well me an' James got there @ lunchtime, the 1st race had started, slowly sailed around and finished and the warm sunshine had failed to materialise... and there were flies, an' bugs, lots of the buggers... Apparently the 1st race had been a close affair with lots of place changing and any of 4 or 5 boats in striking distance of picking a up a bullet as they rounded the last mark, but it was Baz an' our Julie who came out on top....

After paying the entry money, eating a sarnie and rigging post-haste, we hit the water with the rest of the Ents for the 2nd race - there was a good turn out, not sure how many, but trust me, it was a good turn out.... winds were light, shifty & patchy, but hey thats the Midlands series for you!

Race 2 (our 1st one)
After a recall, we finally got off (Johnny being 2 keen to get a good result on the board!), we had a fair start, and an ok beat, things were V tight at the windward mark (Oh BTW the race office must have used every mark on the water... ). Now, I know in an earlier post (Barnt Green), i promised that i wouldn't talk about the "tacking within 2 boat lengths of the mark incident" again, but, being "Sofa King" stupid, I did it again, this time infront of Mr.Commodore - Johnny Woodward... he hit us straight up the stern, a bit of shouting happened, lots of other competitiors seemed to amazingly see the incident and shouted at us too, so, reluctantly (i hate that rule, it just doesn't make sense) we did a 720... so went from probably top 3 to about 8th... not happy, suprisingly James didn't hit me! So with Baz flying off into the sunset (behind the clouds somewhere), we reluctantly started trying to pick our way through the fleet, in light, shifty, slightly unpredicatable conditions.. ggggrrrr, during the next few legs we managed sufficient boat speed and managed to stay on the right side of the shifts to move up to around 5th, just behind Dave Jackson and there was a fair gap to 4th place Mike Cossey and then on to Johhny and Baz.

Then a *funny* thing happened, we were sailing down the run, catching Jackson slowly and were on his transom as we approached one of the leward marks... he was travelling a little slower than us and by about 4 boat lengths from the mark we nearly had an overlap - he called "no water", fine we hadn't and we were outside 2 boatlengths, by 3 lengths we had a small overlap and called for water, he said no! At 2 lengths we "strenuously" called for water to round the mark, again he said no, at about 1 length to go, we told him fairly calmly that we needed water and that, according to the rules, whether he thought we had an overlap or not, he needed to give us enuff room to get round the mark... promptly he "shut the door"... in sailing terms rather than allowing us room to round, and if he didn't think we were in the right protesting, he just luffed to round the mark, hitting us (the boat not punching us) and forcing us to hit the mark, we *nicely* told him we were protesting him and asked him to do a 720 (after we managed to untangle ourselves!), he said no, and went on his way... Protest committee here I come... the race proceeded, we got ahead of him (hahah), into 4th place. this is taking ages to right..actually thats about right, as the OOD in his own *wisdom* managed to keep us sailing for 1 1/2 hours!

So nearly done, the last lap or 1/2 a lap we chased Cossey hard, we had an electric beat sailing into the shore on a slight heading bend, carried on a 100 yds or so further than Cossey had, tacked on the next remote header and got lifted like a bugger over the top of Cossey and into almost "reach" of Johnny - Baz was probably on shore drinking tea by this time :-( well, we never did catch Johnny, but 3rd wasn't too bad - as long as we didn't get lobbed in the protest later....

Race 3 (our last one)
Again, the fleet we "eager" and (again) Johnny tried to lead the fleet astray by being over the line....on a black flag! So, about 3 boats were lobbed, Mr. Commodore and Cossey included... I think we may have been lucky on the flag, but its hard to tell with Johhny half way up the beat and all thoughs blue sails around! So next start happens OK, although part way through the sequence the OD did stop the start and then just restarted it seconds later... what was that about, and is it actually legal??? The 3rd race was, after that, fairly uneventful, we struggled to get clear up the 1st beat and hence spent the race fighting for every position and, managed to get upto 3rd and hold it... Malcolm Lunn one convincingly, with Martin Honnour, like us just there for 2 races, came 2nd....

So would two 3rds be enuff for 3rd overall, or would we be 4th or worse 5th as we didn't have a discgard?? In fact we had a equal points to Dave Jackson (guy who slammed us at the leward mark), so 3rd would be ours only if we won the protest and Dave was lobbed from race 2.... no presure infront of the jury...

So we finished the race and the sun was well passed the yard-arm, and it was well past 5pm... things were running V late and we had protests to hear..! Then, magicaly, something happened to lighten the mood.... Baz & Julie finished behind us, and, as we pulled our boat up the slip, Julie ran past going to get the trolley for the boat... then (before she returned), Baz ambled past... then Julie legged it past and lunged into the water.. noone was holding the boat and it was drifting slowly away!!!! Nice one guys, after winning the event with 2 1sts, you showed that even winners can be muppets sometimes :-)

So, boat packed up quickly, shower and a beer, protests forms had been scribbled on and lodged between the races, a protest committee was press-ganged and both parties were summonsed - I gave my evidence (see earlier) Dave contradicted it by saying we didnt have an overlap at 2 boat lengths, we both summarised our thoughts, the jury of 4 asked a few questions of us both and we were sent out while they deliberated....

The rest of the pint and a pee later, and the decision was made.... the protest committee found in me and James's favour, Dave wasn't happy and is contemplating, last i heard, of seeking an appeal... well the bottles of wine we won, will have been drunk before anything like that even starts!!!

Their conclusion was that it was not conclusive if there was an overlap at 2 boat lengths from the mark, hence the rules state you assume no overlap, so onto the collision, the rules state that basically, I called for water, hence must be given time and opportunity to avoid both the boat and the mark, Dave blocking our way contravened that, hence he's disqualified from the race - if he had let us round (no collision) and then potested, onus would have been on us to prove we had an overlap, which without witnesses would be much more tricky.... Still the truth was spoken, the right decision was made and we got 3rd....

Results

1st Baz & Julie
2nd Malcom & Alex
3rd Ant & James

Well sailed Barry, Julie, Malcom and Alex...

My dad, a sailing, non technical, non computer/web savvy guy, heard for the 1st time today about this web site, and the "Soulsailing" idea.... he said it was probably more like "arse-hole sailing", Claire was in stitches of laughter when she heard that and, I guess Dave Jackson probably thinks that too tonight....