Erik goes swimming at Draycote

…and other stories from the Inland Championships held at Draycote Water, 15 & 16 September, 2007

Well, what a mixed bag of sailing we had at Draycote Water in September! It started with a conversation on the forum, where Gemma Amos asked for some gentler winds than the light crews had endured at Beaumaris and I, reading early Windguru predictions said that it looked gentle for Saturday and a little livelier for Sunday. Lively! Huh, understatement or what!.

But, let’s return to Saturday, 29 boats turned up, with Draycote’s very own national champions (Paul and Callum Huett) promising to turn up for the Sunday races. These are worrying times for our champions, Callum has just discovered Cadets; could be mutiny on the way! Anyway, the sailing started with two races on Saturday afternoon in very gentle conditions. Winds were about 7-8 knots maybe a few gusts a bit higher and the lightweight crews were having it all their own way, Tracey and Gemma Amos (3692) winning the first race ahead of Martyn Lewis and his 6 year old son, Daniel (3834). Martyn and Daniel turned the tables in the second race with their first race win in a Miracle Open (Martyn’s sailed a bit in Fireballs, good to see that he’s learned the error of his ways now!).

Lurking behind but close on the leaders’ transoms were Nick and Aimee Smith (1161) and David Southwell and Carmella Burgess (3740) sailing the Raines’ boat. Adrian and Helen Cripps (4009) were also moving up the fleet; was this further evidence, following their win at Killington, that the new Mark 4 could help improve results? Another lightweight team, Martin and Grace Huett (Grace being positively mature at 7years old) also clocked a fifth and a third.

The racing done for the day, we adjourned to the lounge for a drink or three and a roast dinner with home made apple pie… serious ballast building going on for the next day – and it was going to be needed! So Sunday arrived and at an unearthly hour in the morning various Miracle sailors were to be found wandering around the site, hangovers received large glasses of Draycote’s best tap water and several failed to resist Mary’s bacon butties. Meanwhile the water looked calm with just a few ripples suggesting that some wind was filling in from the south west and so 30 boats converged on a start line for a 10am start.

At 9:57 the wind started to blow and a friendly force two moved up to a bracing force 4 without pausing to notice the possible existence of a force 3. Whoa, this is going to be different racing! It didn’t stop there, force 4 was only the launch pad for force 5 and above. The weather station later said that the strongest gust was at 27mph but the weather station is in the lee of a hill when the wind is from the south west. It wasn’t that there were white horses on the lake… think of the Grand National with that charge for the first fence – that’s how many and how lively the white horses were!. And the wind didn’t abate until most of the visitors were heading for home.

These heavy winds made life difficult for the lighter weight crews. Still, Paul and Callum Huett (3283), managing their very own tactics that involve planing up wind (don’t ask, just don’t ask – Paul’s a 49er helm and I think he forgets he’s only in a Miracle) which was keeping them up with Wayne Atherton and Steve Wroe (3383) and the Smiths in race 3. Indeed Paul reckoned he had the lead on the last beat when his jib halyard broke, anyway Wayne and Steve won the race, which was a welcome return to form after a difficult day one. Still in there clocking up good results were Nick and Aimee Smith, David Southwell and Carmella Burgess with John and Philip Aldhous (3794) (they seem to like sailing at Draycote?) moving up the fleet.

The wind was now making sailing a bit of a struggle for the young Draycote crews so Martyn Lewis, Paul and Martin Huett dropped off their children and rather than just watch, a couple of new, scratch teams were formed with Martin joining his brother Paul and Martyn finding a certain Richard Pye hanging around just looking for a sail on the off chance! Of course, it was only going to be for a bit of fun but the two boats did give something of an exhibition sail as they left the rest of the fleet behind (well I suppose they have substitutes in other sports depending on conditions?). Anyway, Behind the scratch teams, the real championship racing was going on but also some serious havoc was being caused to some boats by boat breaking winds. Tracy and Gemma retired with a sheered shroud shackle (I suggested ooops! Apparently their response was a little stronger! Only 11 boats competed in race 4, with the Smiths leading from start to finish, challenged by Wayne and Steve, before a capsize ended their chances. David Southwell and Carmella Burgess and the Aldhouses were competing for third and then second place, Jon and Phil winning that tussle.

Race 5 saw even fewer boats start (only 6 competitors). Indeed, David Southwell passed on the chance of defending the trophy he won last year by not heading out for the race – was that for fear of returning a broken boat to his brother-in-law or just the thought of the M6 on a Sunday afternoon? The wisdom of that might have been shown by the Smiths losing the bulk of their centreboard on the third lap! Four boats did manage to finish the race, with Jon and Phil winning to earn a win in the Silver fleet and second place overall. Ashley Southwell and Mark Atherton (3800) beat John Tippett and Kathy Boulton (3641) into fourth place whilst Robert and Rachael Cocking (1314) were the only Bronze fleet boat to complete the five races earning them an excellent win in the Bronze fleet.

And Erik (2958) and his swim? Oh, sigh.. on a reach, two sail plane.. a small drop in wind and over we went L. But you know, something came out of that. If I’m honest I’d been really struggling in the high winds (I always do). Adam and I came in a bit bedraggled, rather cold and just plain puzzled about what I was doing wrong. A cup of tea and a conversation with Geoff Candy (3675) led to some explanations and then a short coaching sail (Carmella, there are a couple of photos of this training session in a midst the photos on the site)… the boat stayed upright, it was easier to control (you see, I was shown the impact of raising the centreboard slightly and pushing really hard up wind). OK, I had lousy results all weekend but that’s the joy of an Open Meeting for me – I never fail to learn from the event and yes, in a major championships it’s right to focus on the leading boats, their skill, competitiveness and results. But I wonder if any of them learned as much as this bronze fleet sailor? Or if they enjoyed the conversations and renewed friendships any more? Miracle Open events (all of them across the country) are about so much more than racing; I do hope that we’ll see more of you at next year’s Draycote event; sailing on a large stretch of water (650 acres) with many other boats (some of whom are bound to be sailing at roughly your speed) is just such fun and such an opportunity for learning our sport. You’re all invited for next September!

Caroline Ramsey

PS At lunchtime on the Sunday, a presentation was made by the Association to John Wilson the long time membership secretary of the association. John gave up sailing a few years ago now but continued to serve the association and its members. Thank you, John for all the work you’ve done!