RS Vareo Volvo Noble Marine National Championship – Day 1

by Paul North on 28 Aug 2016 Nils Jollife and Dave Jarrett are the overnight leaders after day one of the RS Vareo Volvo Noble Marine National Championship being held at Llandegfedd Sailing Club over the Bank Holiday weekend.

A warm but overcast day saw a fleet of 26 Vareos (the largest for a good few years) take to the water of this large reservoir in South Wales for three back-to-back races this afternoon. The lake is about 1.5 miles long and a mile wide so plenty of room for the standard windward leeward course. Having been closed for a year for maintenance Langdegfedd reopened this year with brand new, beautiful facilities and a warm welcome was given to the 16 travelling sailors (including two from Holland) and 10 locals. Tea and homemade cake were very welcome at the pre-race briefing.

After a brief pause while the marks were relaid in a shifting wind racing was underway soon after 1pm. Jeremy Symons made good speed to the leeward mark but failed to pass the spreader mark and never regained the ground lost having to return 100 yards. First place to Nils Jollife closely followed by locals Dave Jarrett and Bill Jackson.

Race two saw Nick Crickmore get a “personal gust” on the second downwind leg, leaving him 100 yards clear of the fleet at the mark. He held on to take the win with Luke Fisher second and Dave Jarret third.

I learned a valuable lesson in this race, as you’re beating away from the leeward mark, even if you have the main cleated it’s a good idea to keep a tight hold on it in case you accidentally kick it out of the cleat! With the main going one way and me going backwards into the water I managed to hang on by the toe straps and after a quick bottom wash avoided a capsize. Unfortunately as I flew backwards the boat skewed into the boat on my outside (no damage done thankfully) so a 720 penalty pushed me well down the fleet.

Following a shift at the end of race two the marks were reset for race three. For many of us a start with 26 boats was a new experience but the race officer had set a nice long start line so although busy there was room to manoeuvre without it getting too scary.

Nils Jolliffe was first, again followed by Dave Jarrett with Jeremy Symons in third.

As we returned to the large beach our trolleys were provided efficiently by the great shore team and we packed up after a great afternoon sailing. In the changing rooms the discussion seemed to be that most were looking to discard two of today’s races and we all hoped to have done better – we’ll see!

Great to see so many of this fabulous boat at the event and for some of us “small puddle” sailors a chance to really stretch its legs. Thank you to all the people involved from Llangdegfedd SC, from where I sat it looked to run very smoothly. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow after a good night’s sleep.