505 Open Meeting at Stone Sailing Club

Stone SC gave a warm welcome to thirteen 505s and twelve Hornets at the weekend. Saturday was F2-3 with gusts F4, from the NE, with shifts and slants and holes. Conditions were similar on Sunday, except that the wind had swung to the SW.

No-one got it all right, and there were a lot of place changes, but generally the faster boats won through in the end. All the lower boats, including newcomers John and Adrian from Great Moor SC, and especially Bobbie and Tony, had moments that they will remember, mixing it with the leading bunch, or at least the main bunch.

The downwind legs were usually the ones that sorted out the rankings, with the downwind angles difficult to optimise in the variable wind and sometimes strong current. Tudor and Nolan, recently joining us from the Merlin class, showed good speed at times, and Greg and Ollie from Southwold zoomed into contention spectacularly on one run. But it was Andy and Tim who dominated overall, with consolation race wins going to Terry and Christian and Russ and Andy. Altogether a very good weekend.

Results (6 races, 5 to count)

1 9012 Andy Smith/Tim Needham
2 9006 Terry Scutcher/Christian Diebitsch
3 8935 Russell Short/Andy Short
4 8906 Harry Briddon/Simon Briddon
5 8963 Martin Hodgson/Adrian Miles
6 8701 Rob Napier/Francis Cram
7 8694 Matt Hart/Daniel Hart
8 9013 Tudor Owen/Nolan Forwood
9 8650 Terry Self/Alan Montague
10 8497 Roger Dean/Dennis Cartwright
11 8532 Greg Brown/Ollie Boyes
12 8860 Bobbie Johnson/Tony Merry
13 6435 John Wilson/Adrian Howe

Tony Merry gives his account:

This is the first time we have sailed on the East Coast and we were not sure what to expect at Stone. Situated on the River Blackwater, one can conjure up an image of a narrow tidal river with areas of shallow water dotted with small islands, to be avoided at all costs! Well, it's not actually anything like that.

This is river estuary sailing at its best - a strong tidal system, a very large sailing area and no problems with shallow water. For anyone used to inland water sailing, this is an excellent introduction to the salt-water version prior to taking on the added challenge of the open sea at the Nationals. It's all there apart from the waves!

The race programme was shared with the Hornet Class and, whilst we used the same triangle-sausage racecourse, there was minimal conflict due to the long legs; some involving difficult (for us) reaches. Even the promised pre-event weather forecast of light winds failed to materialise and, whilst some crews may have liked more wind, the conditions were demanding and produced some very close racing. Often race results don't convey just how competitive and close the racing really was. The top crews did manage to fill the top places (as expected) but there were many instances where they were tested and it was not until they managed to escape the middle ranks did they start to put any distance between themselves and the rest of fleet.

Whilst we were unable to post a high top end result this time (capsizes in races 2 and 3 did not help), we did manage to round the first windward mark in top 5 positions in half of our races before things went pear-shaped as soon as we hoisted the monster max on the subsequent reach, promptly giving up 6 places on that leg before having to do it all again!

However, help was at hand (many thanks to Neil whose boat had been loaned to a team in Germany and was unable to compete). We now have a good idea of what we need to work on - use a kite better suited to tighter reaching and remember to use the tweakers (off and on). We also discovered that Nellie has worked out an auto system that pulls the tweakers on and off as the kite is hoisted and lowered - sounds just what we need so it's on our to-do list!

So, what did we think about the club? Well, if you like your sailing to be an "easy experience", this has to be one of the best clubs in the UK. The club members were very friendly, supportive and took on their role as hosts seriously - something that was appreciated by all of the visitors. Camping on-site helps keep costs down, although I suspect many campers spent the cost of a B&B on beer instead! Whilst we were unable to participate in that part of the social scene (having to make do with a very vice rental cottage overlooking the River Crouch), we believe that some visitors managed to keep going into the early hours!

With excellent race management, easy boat launching, plenty of space in the boat park, ample free car parking in a field just yards away from the club, bar and excellent food on tap - what else do we need?

At this point I would like to mention and thank John and Adrian (Great Moor SC) for turning out in their elderly boat 6435. It was never going to be easy for them but they gave it their all and, like us, I hope they took away some useful knowledge and will turn out again. No one should be put off just because they don't think they are good enough or their boat is too old and uncompetitive. You will learn a lot and return better and wiser, ready to take on the other classes on your return. The top sailors are usually more than willing to offer advice - you just need to ask.

So, for all 50 sailors wondering whether to give an open event a go, put Stone in your diary for 2011 - it's in ours already!