THE
MAINSHEET
Summer 2010
Contents
Grafham Water Signet Open Meeting 19 June
Richard Cannon
Grafham Water is a large reservoir, 3 miles long and 1 ½ miles wide, off the A1 between Bedford and Cambridge; the Signets join the Beds and Cambs Regatta slow handicap fleet which had 22 entries. There were only 8 entries in the fast handicap fleet.
John Panting with Rodger Wheeler in ST924 and Richard Cannon with Robert Britton in ST368 went from Aquarius. There were only two other Signets, Pat Overs & Steve Leeding in ST690, and Lizzy Davies & Tory Carrington in ST761 both from Paxton SC.
It was very windy; NE 20 to 25 gusting 30 knts, with large waves. Richard rigged but decided it was too windy for him to sail; it was so windy the genoa wouldn’t furl. A number of potential regatta boats left when they found how windy it was. John and Rodger sailed and did very well not to capsize. Fortunately although very strong the wind wasn’t gusty and it was not as difficult as it looked and sounded.
In the afternoon there were two races back to back of one hour each so we would be on the water for about 3 hours. The wind had dropped by 5knts to a more manageable 15 to 20, gust 25knts so Richard decided to race. There was close racing between the SigneTs although at times positions changed with big difference in the distance between boats.
Lizzy and Pat were faster off the wind and Richard was faster on the beats and managed to be the first Signet in both races; the decision not to sail the first race paid off as he was fresher for the afternoon races. Lizzy capsized in the last race. John did very well not to capsize although in the last race he had a very near capsize which completely filled them with water.
We never get similar conditions on the river; if it is windy it is usually very gusty and fluky and we never go really fast.
