RTIR Kite Fest!

Iain C said:
Are you a certain red HSC boat perchance?
Click to expand...

I certainly am.. but racing under Channel Sailing Club colours for the RTIR..

I’ve got a great picture looking back at Hurst Gap, a wall of boats with nothing on the needles side! I tracked to the Island side thinking that was the side to creep through, I got that from the Winning Tides book, I could see boats stationary so aborted, my tacks were both negative VMG, I went to the north and made slight headway through. I then followed the shingles bank all the way up to shingles elbow before I made for needles
 
chippysmith said:
I certainly am.. but racing under Channel Sailing Club colours for the RTIR..

I’ve got a great picture looking back at Hurst Gap, a wall of boats with nothing on the needles side! I tracked to the Island side thinking that was the side to creep through, I got that from the Winning Tides book, I could see boats stationary so aborted, my tacks were both negative VMG, I went to the north and made slight headway through. I then followed the shingles bank all the way up to shingles elbow before I made for needles
Click to expand...

Ha we did exactly the same, although we were also on the island side with our heads in the winning tides book (one of the stationary boats you were looking at no doubt), and saw you close the gap and then overtake us on the Shingles side. 15 minutes earlier and the reverse was true...the boats at Hurst were going nowhere. We may not have spotted it but your red hull made it obvious so we joined you but by that time you were a bit ahead. Soon after we decided that Cowes was the better option, and much much later picked you out (red hull again) from the roof of the Corinthian whilst getting very well oiled with the rest of the HSC usual suspects. We were watching the tracker and willing you over...it must have been seriously squeaky bum time for you guys and I gather the RC applauded you?

Absolutely well done on the trophy...very very well deserved!!
 
lw395 said:
The start times as they are give the good sailors in small cheap boats their best chance of a good result.
That is as close to a 'race for all' as you can get, racing around a tidal island.

It would be extremely foolish to mess about with the fundamentals of the UK's most popular sailing event to suit some bizarre interpretations of how people failed to keep up with Contessas in light air.
Click to expand...
But that is only the case with reasonable wind.

in anything F3+ the tides work well for the smaller boats/ later start - you can get close to having a fair tide all the way around and certainly as far as St Cats - but along with that goes the downside that if the winds are light and you miss the tidal gate you are going nowhere.

Frustrating though that can be it is hard to see what they can do about it - the idea of changing the start times shortly before the race is clearly a non-starter, and there is no feasible way of shortening the course.
 
Iain C said:
We were watching the tracker and willing you over...it must have been seriously squeaky bum time for you guys and I gather the RC applauded you?

Absolutely well done on the trophy...very very well deserved!!
Click to expand...

Thank you, yes, my eta was all over the place, wind died on us again after Bembridge, probably near Ryde Sands. That was tricky as I thought that that was it.. bramblemet was giving me 11knts though so we hung in there hoping to get some.. by this time the eta was telling me to go home... we waited and it paid off, wind finally filled in again and that got us over the line, we passed the committee Boat bow very close, as I didn’t have time to track down the line. We got a very rapturous applaud, we were blown away, so pleased we stuck it out, you’d have thought we’d won the Roman Bowl ��. Thank you for your “outside assistance”, I must admit, it did feel that someone was willing us along at times ��...

I must commiserate the finishers behind us, there were a few and that must have felt awful. ��

PS... I am now seriously considering changing my hull colour ����
 
Last edited:
It really favoured the small boats, we just made it round the needles, got stuck for ages at st. cats, but we stayed close to the IOW along Ryde sands and seemed to catch and overtake quite a few hundred boats stuck in a big wind hole. Ended up wining the quarter tonner class and 5th overall on corrected time.
I loved it, the views were amazing and i only said i would crew so i could see the needles channel for the first time. I might do it in my own boat next year.
 
neil9riley said:
It really favoured the small boats, we just made it round the needles, got stuck for ages at st. cats, but we stayed close to the IOW along Ryde sands and seemed to catch and overtake quite a few hundred boats stuck in a big wind hole. Ended up wining the quarter tonner class and 5th overall on corrected time.
I loved it, the views were amazing and i only said i would crew so i could see the needles channel for the first time. I might do it in my own boat next year.
Click to expand...

Well done!
 
lw395 said:
So that's roughly mid day, 4 hours to do about 16 miles with the tide gving you 2 knots, so you need a vmg through the water of about 2 knots. So worst case if it's bang on the nose, you need 3 knots if you can point at 48 degrees off.
Most people if they can't do that are going to give up of their own accord and look forwards to next year.
Click to expand...

I'm not normally one to overtly disagree with another poster but your assumptions are off. See post #44 for what time people actually rounded the needles. I may not be a hardened racer but my "optimal time to set out" abilities are not too shabby and I'm emboldened with the benefit of hindsight and having actually been there. Your tidal advantage estimates are over: it was a day off neaps and you're ignoring the effects of fighting through a pack of boats whilst endeavouring to keep in the fastest water. We were making better through-the-water speed than that. Again, I'm not saying group 8 "should" have started earlier because I recognise the logistical constraints. I'm simply disputing the point we seem to disagree on. I assert that had group 8 started an hour earlier, more boats from that group would have finished within 13h 50mins. We would have finished earlier. I wonder what chippysmith who doubtless was also running the numbers, thinks on that that point.

And again, let's raise a glass to those who *didn't* record a time but nonetheless pushed on and finished after midnight
 
8.10 Start..
Hurst 11.35..
Out of gap 12.16..
Needles 14.00.. +5.50
St Cats 16.30
Bembridge 19.00
Finish 21.53

Just before St Cats we fell into another transition, I dropped all the sails and hoisted the spinnaker.. we then played the spinny until it filled, that gave us direction, took a while and was quite a fight.. but we got on the new wind well.

We can usually do this race in 9 hrs, very easy and i love loads of wind. This year, this season, has been all light airs. we don't go well in light airs, boat is 5 tons plus, but we have been constantly trying to improve our sailing in these conditions, staying out on Saturday was all part of that.. we overtook many retirees on our way from St Cats.
 
Yellow Ballad said:
Can you post a pic of your boat? We had a nemesis red boat which may well have been you looking at your times.
Click to expand...

She’s a Lotus 9.2 from NZ.. Built 1982, only vessel of its type in the UK. GRP hull with kauri deck, and coachroof
 

Attachments

  • 6C9F30A6-6747-432A-801A-155D6D591B29.jpeg
    6C9F30A6-6747-432A-801A-155D6D591B29.jpeg
    60.2 KB · Views: 0
  • 069A3143-52D6-436A-BB3C-63D595A15814.jpeg
    069A3143-52D6-436A-BB3C-63D595A15814.jpeg
    216.3 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top