Cobley Series 12 – 5th December 2021

Yet another cold, windy day (but not as bad as forecast) and the number of OODs exceeded the number of sailors!! 

Four brave souls started the Pursuit race, two Lasers Darren braving the full rig and James opting to reduce sail, Chris in a reduced sail Comet and Ron in his Mirror. 

SOOD Karen had set a course starting at Tectona of Ap (close to 4), Bp ( between 4 and 2), 8p, 5p, 1s. Ron was first away and stayed in front for the first 2 laps, Chris kept his place for the first lap. By the end of the second lap Darren was right on Ron’s transom and Chris was the tail ender. Darren finished in podium position with Ron second, and James third. Not really sure why James decided to celebrate with a capsize, including wrapping his mainsheet around mark 1 just as the gun went, because it was definitely too cold for swimming!! 

With no hanging around Karen and Bea got the Handicap race started (they were cold and wanted to get ashore, the rescue boat crews had both had brief respites ashore to warm up!) 

In the first lap shifting, gusty wind near 5 was the cause of a capsize for Darren who fell out the boat to windward in a lull, and then in a shift and gust the boat went over allowing James to catch up a bit, but not for long. No tactical racing for anyone as each sailor did their best to stay upright and just got round the course as best they could. 

Four laps for Darren and James, who lost a lot of ground in irons after a gusty shift (Push, Push, Wait, Pull, Pull is the quickest method for getting out of irons James!) and, probably relieved that they had been lapped, three for Chris and Ron. 

Order on the water was Darren, James, Chris, Ron, On corrected time Ron leapfrogs to second behind winner Darren. 

A very big thank you to the race team of Karen and Bea, and the Rescue boat team of Alistair S, Ainoha, Bill C and Alessandro. 

These were the last races of the Cobley series. 

Cobly Pursuit winners are Newton and Sam (plus various other crews), with Darren second and Chris H third. 

Cobley Handicap winner is Chris K, with Darren second and Newton and Sam (plus various other crews) third. 

Thanks to Karen for this entertaining report.