Stewartby Water Open Meeting
Today was the Stewartby Water Laser Open Meeting. We had arranged to go with Pete, Steve and Brent but somehow, they didn’t show up in the morning. I was quite pissed off with the whole thing and by the time it was established they were not coming, I had already loaded Bubble on the trailer. I borrowed David’s double trailer because I was supposed to take Pete’s boat too.
Anyway, at that time Mike showed up to pick up his boat. He was going to the Open too. We ended up driving together. We unpacked, signed on, rigged and went to get changed. Today I used my new sail. I have to take the “Scandia” and “GBR” stickers off it and change the sail number to Bubble’s.
The format was 4 races, 1 discard. 2 races in the morning back to back, break for lunch and 2 races in the afternoon back to back. The forecast was for light to medium easterly wind that would ease in the afternoon. While we were rigging the wind seemed quite good. The biggest problem was a yellow, stinking smoke blowing from the nearby brick works. That made it harder than anything else. The competition was quite serious, there were some good and strong sailors. Some of them where young but really good.
In the first race we had two general recalls, a postponement because the wind had shifted and eventually my start was not great. I finished 20th out of 23. On the second race I got more comfortable and I did much better, I finished 13th. We went in for lunch and I got the chance to recharge and rest.
I went out for the third race, had a fairly OK start, and I found myself battling with the same people as before, more or less. On the second lap I made a big mistake, I went at the wrong side of the lake. As I rounded the mark and I was starting the beat, I tacked to starboard while everybody else stayed on port. Instead of following them, I went off to the other side to find more wind. I failed miserably. I was left back by 30-40 yards! That’s the biggest mistake by any book. I finished 19th.
At the last race, I was a bot fed up, so I was just going through the motions until I crossed the line. I finished 16th. Overall I was 19th out of 23. Not a bad result, considering the competition. The venue is quite nice, the annoying thing is the fact that the lake is shared with water-skiers and you get the wake from the powerboats. On top of that it was quite shifty. The point is that when you are in the middle of that lake there is no reason to be so shifty. The Walsh Harp is surrounded by trees and buildings and you can see why it’s so shifty. That place though is much more open and at times was shiftier than the Harp. I am not sure I am going back next year.
More sailing tomorrow, at the Harp. See you then.