Sussex Yacht Club Autumn Series 2009. Race One - 13 September
Poor old Barda hasn't seen a lot of activity this summer as the team collectively had a break from racing. Big news for us is that after years on the SYC waiting list we were offered one of the club moorings at Southwick which was very gratefully accepted. The new mooring is much easier to get on and off short-handed, demonstrated a few weeks ago when young Rob and I took the boat out mackerel fishing (and yes we caught lots!) We also have shore power available so for the first time Barda has had her batteries trickle charged...progress indeed.

The downside is that being on the outside mooring, the extra sunshine means we are sprouting weed at a prodigious rate and the Blakes hard racing anti-foul just isn't coping. Consequently I booked Barda for a quick lift in the SYC boat hoist slings, enabling Jason and I to get under her with a jet wash and broom to get her ready for the Autumn Series racing. The shaft anode had also taken a battering so that was replaced and is now backed up with a large zinc 'fish' whilst moored - a wire runs down below where using a crocodile clip it is connected to the prop shaft, hopefully extending the life of the much smaller shaft anode.

Having managed to scrape through the Spring series with a narrow victory I was keen to get the team back together and see if we could do better in the hotly contested SYC Autumn Series, however despite much early warning I found ourselves rather light on hands for Sunday's first race. Jason had managed to book himself and Barbara on a break to Barcelona (where her handbag was stolen), Daff was running foredeck on his firm's entry in the Little Britain event in the Solent (where they were T-boned) and Maggie was also wreaking havoc on a girls away trip to terrify some Spanish menfolk. Happily Susie was able to come out to play with myself, Rob and Nigel (perhaps I could have phrased that better) which meant if I did the steering and runners we'd be just about OK with four aboard. Our first bit of luck was when Ollie explained that his usual ride 'Flyover' was away on holiday and could he get a ride on Barda? "Welcome aboard Ollie, there's the foredeck, go and play!" (Picture above proves Ollie was aboard Barda which may cause some consternation amongst those on his normal ride 'Flyover').

Having been at Suzy's barbecue until squiffy o'clock on Saturday night we were in a surprisingly fit state on Sunday, though one of us felt the need to pep up their breakfast tea with a splash of rum. With around 14 knots of Northerly flying over the canal we put our flat cut #2 on the furler and tried to remember how everything works, which wasn't really helped when I heard Nigel on deck say "oops" followed by a 'bonk...bonk...splash'. Coming topsides I found that the top of one of the admittedly ancient halyard winches on the cabin top had come away and gone over the side leaving a rather stubby winch base to play with. Time for some new cabin top winches then!

The small leisure lock soon filled with SYC boats, leaving Barda and Yesitis waiting for the 2nd cycling. After 20 minutes or so of inactivity from the lock keeper I got on VHF 14 and found he had no intention of running another outbound lock until 11.00, which with an 11.10 start time meant we were out of the race before it had begun! I went up to the lock keepers office to plead with him, to little avail, and then Nigel from Yesitis went up and was promised passage through the large lock. Back on the boats we waited for the larger lock to open, but that wasn't happening. Having negotiated a 15 minute postponement with Neil on the beach as OOD we eventually got out of the lock at 11 and made double quick time out of the port and along the beach to the start with little time to spare. Needless to say we were NOT impressed with Shoreham Port, even though we did get a 2nd cup of tea (so emptying the run bottle).

Nigel had heard the course broadcast whilst we were still waiting for the lock and we agreed that Neil Prescott had come up with an excellent challenge. From the Old Fort Line we were to race along the beach, leaving the west mark to port as we turn south for number 3. Having had no time to assess the breeze or the angles properly we simply went for the seaward end (the closest to the port) and had a middling start below Chiron and immediately having to wiggle over G-n-Tee. Those that started further in towards the beach had a clear advantage and I cursed as amongst others the SB3 Sharkbite got round the west mark well in front of us, though they had misheard the course and scooted off in the wrong direction, which was nice for us and was to prove a crucial mistake later on.

Rather than go for an immediate gybe at the West mark we elected for a starboard pole hoist and with Ollie up front and Susie at the mast Nigel was soon trimming our big kite as Rob played with the pole height and guy. With speed and space we pulled off a fairly clean gybe towards the south and climbed over Devils Advocate that was running goose winged. Steve on Truant was sailing his HOD Truant single handed and seemed to be doing rather well - who needs a crew anyway?

Sharkbite had by now realised they were the only boat heading for number 5 and had decided the majority were probably right and were back on course. Talking about courses we were struggling to make sense of what we were looking at - the mark popularly known as Del Buoy was where number three should be? Where the hell were we going? Unbeknown to team Barda, the marks had been swopped, but realising that everyone else was climbing up to the nearby post we too dropped the kite and headed up the the mark, arriving just after Truant.

Hardening up on the breeze it was obvious that in the gusts Barda was at the upper limit for the number two genoa and I had to flatten off and flog the main to keep us on our feet, but we did seem to be pointing OK and with a bit of trimming cranked her up to a reasonable boat speed (Picture is of Devils Advocate showing the advantage of all that waterline length).

This was a good beat for Barda, arriving at the west mark in pole position. Leaving west to starboard we made back along the beach, staying high on the wind until I was sure we were not going to be caught out by a big header - usually a northerly breeze like this would be shifty as hell but other than the regular gusts and clearly defined changes in pressure over the water the direction was reasonably contact with perhaps 5 degrees either way with the puffs/lulls. hats of thought to Steve on Truant, pictured below, who was all alone and right on the pace.

Bearing away for the east mark we hoisted with port side pole and looked for the 'real' Del Buoy, slightly extending our lead as we left number one mark to starboard. Gybing for the distant number three I was watching Sharkbite out on our starboard side as they played the asymmetric angles and it looked as if they might be arriving at the turn at the same time as Barda. I think we must have been getting some extra push from the seas on this leg as we managed to keep the pace on and went clear ahead of Sharkbite, droping the big kite and hardening up for the long beat inshore.

Trying to make the most of the slight shifts we tacked our way down to the east mark again and discovered on the approach a much biger gentle shift that made me wonder if we were going to over-stand, but in the event we needed another short tack to make it. Bearing away we didn't ease the sheets quick enough and had a bit of a roundy-up moment, but we managed to get away with minimal drama and from there powered towards the line on a fast two sail reach with boat speed peaking at 9.5 knots.

It was with much happiness that we took line honours, though with the cockpit speaker still out of action (I really must sort that out!) Ollie had to call Neil on the beach to confirm we'd got a finish. If I had remembered to bring along the beers we'd have been able to toast a great day on the water, but when we got back to the club house we could toast our IRC win! Sharkbite was second by 18 seconds on corrected time, so in all honesty if they hadn't misheard that course instruction they'd have got us... so there's definitely all to play for, especially as John will be back with Flyover soon which will also warm up the competition somewhat. Thanks to Ollie for helping out and next week team Barda will be the one's on the beach as I'm the next OOD.

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