Race 1
The Torbay national championships started with a poor wind forecast with
the race officer announcing that we would head out to sea to see if
the wind would appear. Well, race one got underway in 4.2 knots of
wind off the committee boat. A couple of OCS boats went by the way side
but it was Mike Dencher who made it to the windward mark first
followed closely by Colin Dacey then Steve Marshall. A very light wind
leeward course followed with some major place changes and a bit of a
melee was made even worse by a change of course indicated at the
leeward mark confused by the leaders as a shorten course. So, with the
leading pack heading off the wrong way Jon Heissig tried for a come
back by reading the flags correctly.
 
Colin Dacey made the most of the light winds to take the first line
honours of the 2009 national championships and a very well done. Mike
Dencher followed closely in second with Richard Allen coming in third.

Race 2

Race 2 started in a couple knots more breeze than race 1. Richard Allen was leading at the top mark followed by Tony Dencher then Mike Dencher. At the bottom mark it was very close with Michael Barnes, Richard Allen, Mike Dencher, Tony Dencher and Ed Reeves all rounding together.

On the second lap it was Michael Barnes in pole around the windward mark with Tony Dencher on his heels. Michael gybed off left and Tony went right. Richard Allen and Ed Reeves were next and also gybed off left. Left paid off with Michael still first at the leeward mark and Ed coming through from fourth to second. Richard maintained his third down the run but then let Tony through just before the finish with a kite wrap on the gybe at leeward mark.

The fleet came off the water grateful to have got a couple of good races in despite the light winds and the even lighter winds forecast.  A number of competitors felt that a swim in the harbour together with their boats was required given the hot weather! Royal Torbay Yacht Club served up a great carvery dinner to sustain the fleet through the evening and the next three days of racing.

Day 2

Race 3

Gently Easterly wind filled in for race 3, and on a slightly starboard biased line, Ed Reeves pulled a near-perfect committee boat start and headed towards the cliffs.  He was joined by a small group of Chris Wright, Jon Heissig and Steve Marshall, who all came out at the windward mark ahead of the main fleet who had gone out to sea.   On the second beat, Reeves was slowly caught by Heissig, but Marshall came out from the cliffs to take the lead and held on to win from Reeves, followed by Heissig and Wright.

Race 4

The wind perked up a little for the second race of the day.  The race committee, coping admirably in the light and changeable 6 to 7 knot north easterly, set a sensibly sized course in what was to be a dying breeze. 

The leading pack started forming from the port side of the first beat, following the “head for the cliffs” local intelligence.  Jon Heissig in 882 found his clear lane and approached the weather mark like a greased weasel.  Some 40 yards behind, Tim Johnson in 762 found some pace, leaving others in his wake, except for Mark Nicholson in 831 – probably the heaviest salad-dodger in the fleet “loving” these light winds.  They rounded nose-to-tail with just a few yards to fourth placed Richard Allen (no featherweight himself) in 990, continuing his good form from the Carnac Europeans.

Heissig and Johnson carried their gybing battle down the run, with Johnson’s extraordinary speed downwind catching Heissig as they duelled their way to the first leeward mark.  Heissig rounded just ahead of Johnson, with Nicholson and Allen some 50 yards behind. Not far back James Ross in 938 was looming ominously, gaining on the two porkers downhill.

The second beat saw no place changes in the leading half dozen, but with less wind changes took place downhill.  Johnson slipped ahead of Heissig, with Ross and Allen timing their gybes well to slip past Nicholson at the bottom mark.  By the last windward mark, the leading pair continued their duel with Allen third, Ross fourth.   Another lightweight, Nick Miller in 815, crept through to fifth, relegating Nicholson to sixth. 

The excitement continues, dear readers.  Johnson carried on to win, with Heissig a close second.  The race was on for third! Allen thought he had it in the bag, but hit a Torbay hole.  Nicholson, with nothing to lose, took a flyer out to sea and maintained good pace.  He took out Ross, Miller and Allen but the real surprise was the appearance of Mark Pollington (963) who took his own private shift from 100 yards behind into fifth.

Oh for more of this light breeze excitement tomorrow!

Day 3

About 10 knots of northerly breeze made a welcome change for day 3. At least there was enough power to flat wire and plane at times although the 90 degree shifts off the cliff were always going to make for interesting racing. A pod of dolphins came to play mid afternoon which distracted a few people from those vital shifts. One boat was reported to be using a dolphin power to the advantage surfing their stern wave upwind.

Race 6 – report to follow

Race 7

The wind was as twisty as a twisty turny thing, with holes and gusts to fool simple mortals. The race committee set a line that was fair as often as not and the fleet made a clean start. At one point the boats heading to the cliff looked like they were going to get pressure and a golden shift to take them straight to the first mark but then the pressure and the wind came in from the left. The author was sitting in a hole in the middle of the beat and was so far back he could not see who went around the mark first but Phil Dickinson said he was second and Mike Dencher was first.

Mike took the lead by the bottom mark and Jon Hessig closed into second. For the second beat the wind was changing direction as quickly as a weasel on speed. Jon said every shift had his name on it. He took the lead and held it from Mike until the finish.

With Jon and Mike following each other the real racing happened further down the fleet. For the final downwind leg the wind was gusting down the course in lines and gybing to stay in these lanes paid dividends. The chasing pack was split right across the race course. Tim Johnson hit all the gusts to take third by taking water from Brendan Jenner on the last mark. Mark Nicholson was close behind in fifth, Phil Dickinson sixth and Peter Shaw in seventh with their best results of the regatta……so far.

Race 8

Again some variable light winds haunted the 700 fleet.  Off the start line, most boats favoured the right-hand side of the course, which proved advantageous over the left except for one break from Simon Letten who stole the 1^st boat at the windward mark from Nick Miller who was closely followed by Mike Barnes.   Downwind, Miller and Barnes pulled through Letten only to then receive a bad windshift allowing Letten back past.   The second beat saw Letten try the same tactic of going right, which did not pay for him.   Barnes was 1^st to the mark followed by Jon Heissig who passed Miller upwind.   The positions stayed the same for the next lap with Barnes battling for the pole and Miller behind trying to fed off Michael Dencher for 3^rd.   Barnes managed to take his 2^nd bullet of the championship.

Race 5 (Re-scheduled)

An increase in breeze just before the start was enough to encourage lots of people to be OCS but after one general the fleet got away cleanly. At the windward mark it was Mike Dencher in the lead, followed by Jon Heissig. The top two went left downwind and at the mark their positions hadn’t changed but Tony Dencher had taken a flyer down the right hand side to climb from sixth up to third. Up the beat most favoured the left side and at the top the three all went left down the final run. Jon held off Tony at the leeward mark with a quick drop and so the their positions didn’t change. However Tim Johnson had once again worked his way up the fleet to sneak fourth in front of Brendan Jenner.

Day 4

Race 9

Race 9 Tuesday, 29 September 2009 With a minute to go the North Westerly five knot breeze shifted to favour the pin end, Neil Robinson took the lead with Phil Dickinson close behind but Tim Johnson was the first to cross the fleet. With the wind oscillating every minute by up to 20 degrees only Mike Dencher tamed the shifts and got his friendly dolphin 'Flipper' to push him rapidly to the first mark over 100 yards ahead of the pack: Richard Allen, Chris Aston, Nick Miller, Ed Reeves, Simon Leetin, Brendan Jenner and Tim Johnson. As the wind shifted downwind the pack constantly gybed and jockeyed for position all the way to the leeward mark. The sun was starting to bring in the sea breeze and it was destroying the gradient wind. Mike Dencher went up the middle of the second beat to cover the pack and found a huge hole. The following pack crept around Mike heading right towards the cliffs in the dying breeze. Whilst most of the boats in the teens and below went around the hole to the left heading towards Paignton. With the gradient wind breaking up, the beat turned into a minefield where our heroes chased zephyrs, suffered random shifts and the occasional autotack. We could see the wind out to sea receding and the pressure threatening to come in from the Paignton shore. The race committee could feel the pain on the race course, our hour was nearly up and so they wisely shortened the race at the windward mark. Mike Dencher found the way out of his private hole to win the race, Richard Allen ghosted through to second, Tim Johnson sneaked in for a third ahead of Chris Aston in fourth and Ed Reeves in fifth all from the original leading pack. Jon Hessig reached in from the Paignton shore with a well worked sixth as the rest of the fleet converged on the finish line from across the bay. The sun shone and the sea breeze became dominant for the final race.

Race 10 – Report to follow