I arrived at the campsite, which is directly opposite the sailing club entrance, on the Sunday fully expecting to be on my own as the other Tinkers should have been out racing. However the sailing had been postponed due to very strong winds so I was in luck – I was going to be able to race the following day.
Altogether there were 5 Tinkers present. 3 Star Travellers (Al, Lindsey, and Perry), and two Super Tramps (Mike and me).
Monday’s racing saw strong winds so it was small jibs and for a few of us it was reefed mainsails. Apart from Perry who wouldn’t know a small jib or reefed mainsail if he saw one. I sailed the first couple of races with reefed main and shook it out for the first race after lunch. Still strong winds and I found that the main was overpowering the jib so the Tinker kept trying to round up into the wind, and I was having to oversteer to keep going in the direction I wanted so the rudder was effectively acting as a brake. As the races were back to back, I put a reef back in whilst still on the water.
The Star Travellers had the definite advantage during Monday’s races – not just with greater sail area, but because they can point far higher than the Super Tramps with their titchy daggerboards and can make much more ground with each tack. The water was very lumpy and I spent much of my time bailing when reaching. The runs were fairly thrilling as the waves were big enough to surf, and rather alarming when you caught up with the wave in front. Dive, dive, dive!
With Tuesday came two pursuit races, based on personal results from the day before. Mike went off first in his Super Tramp, I started 10 minutes later, and the other three started 17 minutes later. Lindsey nearly got a handicap of 16 minutes 30 seconds, but Neil (race officer) made a last minute decision to make all the Star Traveller handicaps the same. Fairly predictably the Star Travellers came storming past the Super Tramps. However, in the second pursuit race something really got into Mike – the Star Travellers came storming past me but they couldn’t catch Mike. When the race finished Lindsey was about 10 seconds away from catching him – if only she’d had a 16 minute 30 second handicap instead of 17 minutes!
Wednesday and time for a cruise. Lindsey was accompanied by Neil and Jess the dog, Perry was on his tod, as was I. We sailed over to the far side of the water and up the other “arm” of the lake. The wind was a bit on again off again – perfect for cruising but would have been maddening for racing. We parked up for a leisurely visit to a cafe for lunch and coffee, then sailed back to the vicinity of the club, sailed further up the lake for a while, then back to shore to pack up.
This was my first time at Rutland Water and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
