Middle Nene, Tactics are crap and always the bridesmaid...

So, it was a good weekend, there was breeze, some sunshine and some heat in the spring weather... 20 odd enthusiastic Enter-yachters turned up for the Middle Nene Enterprise Open...

No bugger told me it was a 10:30am start though did they!
Not good being told that at 10:10am when you've took a wrong turning and your the otherside of the lake to where you wanna be!

So... thankfully things were a little delayed and I got to the club, the boat was rigged (ta James and co) and it was time for the briefing... no time for the traditional Bacon sarnie and cup of coffee though, so we hit the water, hungry for something....

Race 1
So, the complex course was set...but it turned out to be a triangle! The wind continued to shift and wax and wane and we got a good start, the wind lifted and we had top boat speed off the line so we powered (ish) off and well to be fair we got in the lead and it was, despite being chased hard by Mike Cossey et al, a fairly follow-my-leader race/course.... so we won, and Mike was deservedly 2nd....

..then there was lunch...sun shining, in April, and a particular nice "chilli-jacket spud" was consumed... with lots of coffee (I was gagging for it)....

Race 2
So a few marks chucked into the course to make things more interesting (we liked? having to beat back through the running boats!) again, we had a good start, and a pretty good 1st beat, racing was a little more exciting on this one with the lead changing hands a good few times it was v close and pretty interesting for us, the Scutts, us, Mr.Cossey and Mr.Davies were all having some good racing. In the end the Scutts were 1st with us second... hey ho... best do the last race then...

Race 3
After a short chill 'n chat and some more brew we went out for the last race.. it was close.. and the race was on for who got the best chocs/wine..... again (gettin' boring now) we had a good start, makes a change for us...

The challengs for this race was easy... make sure Cossey and the Scutts didn't win... that was all......................and at the top mark we were in 3rd place, right behind Scutts and Cossey, hmmm nightmare scenario... thinking hats on...tactic database searched... what were the chance of us being right (1 foot or so) behind the Scutts again for the race... we felt this was the chance, this was the opportunity... the thinking was so...

1. Sail the Scutts high and out of the running for 1s place
2. Let Martin Davies (currently in 4th place) through to 2nd place
3. Give Martin room to breathe and chase down and overtake Cossey
4. Martin Davies wins the race and we, with a 1st and 2nd win overall...
5. Tactics always pay when executed right!!

So, we went high, Jane Scutt followed up protecting her wind... we got higher (it was like trainspotting out there!) Jane came with us "White Light / White Heat" as the Velvet Underground once said.. So, Martin Davies tucks in nicely behind Cossey.. his ass was Martins.. oh yes... us and Scutts rejoined the race a few places down.. over to you Martin...

Right... next we hit some crap wind and got crapped out the back of the fleet.. Scutts stayed in 3rd... we wallowed around a bit... half trying to catch up and half weatching the race for 1st and 2nd.... Cossey held the lead... Scutts caught right up and applied some pressure... we got are arses going and started moving back up the fleet.....

This is probably getting boring for you know.. anyway... Davies failed us miserably, ended up 3rd, Cossey 2nd and Scutts first.. then Cossey hit the last leward mark... pressure, pressure, pressure.... we "hailed" for his turns.. so he obligingly capsized! We ended up fourth, but the scutts won..so they took the event and we were second.... bugger bugger bugger... you just cant trust people to win these days...

So, after a bag of dry-roasted peanuts and a beer we had the prizegiving and went home...refreshed for a good sail, but a little dissapointed that we'd got another second....

So that was the day... we finished, we'd had a good sail and we were a little sunburnt... global warming is here.. but i'm feeling globally chilled right now...

1st The Scutts
2nd Ant 'n James
3rd The Davies

Oh, by the way... you'll have noticed that in this report and the last I haven't lost my rag yet and we haven't had any incidents... its gonna be a strange year! Still the Scutts mast fell down, Smithy's bailer broke, I got lost and I've burnt all my books on racing tactics...