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Port Edgar 2007 |
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Port Edgar YC 8th-9th
September
2007 Port Edgar is an old naval base next to the famous Forth Road and Rail bridges. The Europe Traveller was held as part of the club's annual dinghy regatta. While the Port Edgar harbour and the club is on the south bank of the river, the regatta sailing area is on the north side of the estuary where there is a broad bank of shallows which diminishes the otherwise strong tides experienced at this the narrowest part of the Forth Estuary. In a generally low regatta turnout, only the two Europes of Val Ludlow from the local club and Brian Finnie made it to the event. Technically the series depended on this event, since whichever of the two won would take the trophy, but any bookmaker would have put Val as strong favourite. Saturday The wind was from the west and 7-8 knots. The first race started on slack tide and with a noticeable port bias both Val and Brian planned to be at the pin. Not surprisingly the rest of the handicap fleet had the same plan and both Europes threaded their way ducking sterns to head out to the right, with Brian getting clear just ahead of Val. With little distance between them up the beat, it was Brian who was still leading at the mark, with the prospect of defending a broad reach to the wing mark of a triangular course. Unusually, Val made up no ground downwind and Brian rounded still just ahead and continued to defend aggressively against Val's threat to make the overlap on the short close reach to the leeward mark. A successful defence allowed Brian to lead Val round by a boat's length. Val tacked to the left to clear her wind but Brian was too slow to cover. By the next crossing Val had the edge and half way up the beat to the finish of the now shortened course Val was in front and kept the advantage to the line. For the second race the tide was starting to ebb. The Europes made a mid line start to windward of the fleet, with Brian just to windward of Val at the gun. Val was sailing faster, and a little way up the beat Brian was forced to break tacks and go right for clear wind. A pronounced shift to the left soon after put Brian well down to leeward, leaving Val clear space which she increased over the subsequent laps of the trapezoid course to finish well ahead. By the third start the tide was running fast and the right of the course towards the shore was going to be the only route to take. As the fleet gathered by the committee boat Brian saw a gap and squeezed out on port between the leading Laser and the committee boat anchor chain to get away with a clean line to the right. However the Laser tacked just ahead and Brian had to tack off for clear wind before returning to the right. Val continued sailing towards the shore but Brian thought that there should be less tide on the shoal bank up the centre of the course and tacked back towards the left. Unknown to Brian, the right hand side contained a back eddy and at the next crossing Val was well in front with the rest of the local boats, leaving Brian to get his remaining interest from avoiding being last over the line at the finish. Sunday Sailors were welcomed to the club on Sunday with a forecast of rising winds and a strong wind warning for the Forth Valley. With the committee boat reporting 25 knots from the south west with wind against the incoming tide out on the estuary, all boats were held ashore until the Race Officer felt the wind had subsided to a more reasonable 15 knots, whereupon the fleet ventured out of the shelter of Port Edgar harbour. The two Europes were first to arrive at the starting area to find the postponement flag still flying and apologetic expressions on the committee as the wind had obviously increased considerably during the reach across the river. Brian sampled the conditions and, nursing a broken boat (his boat had been holed the previous day by a recalcitrant Musto Skiff during a break between the races and was now held together by a generous measure of Duck Tape), decided that enough was enough and headed back on an exciting broad reach to return to the shelter of the southern shore and the harbour wall. Val decided to start and joined a reduced fleet for the fourth race of the event. With the tide behind the boats upwind the beat was short, if hard work. After the short reaching leg of the trapezoid course the downwind leg became a long drawn out struggle in the strong wind and short chop to keep the boat from nosediving. After surviving the first lap Val decided to retire early and headed in, leaving even fewer boats to continue the regatta into the fifth race. With this result and two of the previous traveller events to her credit, Val is the overall winner of the Scottish Traveller Trophy for 2007. Overall Results
Brian Finnie GBR315 |
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