Nantwich 2023

Nantwich and Borders Sailing Club CVRDA Open Meeting 27th and 28th May 2023 

With Nantwich being a new venue for the CVRDA, thanks to Sam Barker’s powers of persuasion, the visitors started to gather early for what promised to be a warmer and drier weekend than the one enjoyed by the Lowrider Moths in the middle of April. Pat and Sandy with their “old faithful” blue Albacore and Ian and Wendy towing the shabby Shelley were first to arrive and were met by the welcoming committee of Sam together with Richard Binns.

Ian had made a slight detour en-route to swing past Lyndon Beasley’s house to collect the “missing” sail for the Phobia design Moth that Sam was trying to put together. Somehow the sail had been left in the sail store at Greensforge when the boat was sold to Matt Stephenson and now the boat has found itself in Sam’s hands, we were keen to put sail and boat together and try to give the boat an outing. To this end Sam shot off home to collect said Phobia so we could have a go at assembling it later. Meanwhile Gavin arrived with a slightly battered looking National 12, which almost made Ian’s Shelley appear concourse by comparison. To be fair the 12 was a rare example of the 1974 and 1975 Burton Cup winning Paper Dart design and would have been built in the early 70s, so probably deserves a few battle scars to prove that it has been raced hard as intended. Graham Cooper arrived soon after with the rather lovely Mistral, which would put all the other boats to shame with its nice varnished finish. After rigging the boat Graham decided to go out for a sail as he hadn’t been out in the Mistral for a while and felt he could do with some practice.

Paul Hignett who was travelling down from Scotland, rang Ian to say that he might not make it after all as his van had broken down near Carlisle and the symptoms pointed to a failed diesel injector. The AA were summoned and a tow to the nearest Services was on the cards until Paul had a flash of inspiration and remembered he still had the number of the chap that changed an injector by the roadside the last time he had a similar problem. A quick call later and said chap was on his way and the tow truck cancelled. With the injector replaced, Paul was back on the road by 8:30 pm with a revised ETA of midnight or thereabouts.

Meanwhile the Phobia had arrived and was Cobbled expertly put together by Sam and Ian, meaning that Sam felt the need to go out for a test sail despite the impending darkness. Perhaps surprisingly, this was so successful that the Phobia was declared race ready for the weekend. 

 Sam had also been busy preparing the mystery boat with its cotton sails on a gunter rig so that it could also join in the fun.

A few of us felt obliged to sit in the clubhouse and drink beer while waiting up for Paul’s arrival, which he duly did at about 11:30. Thanks to the specialist injector man and a hit on the insurance, a disaster had been averted and “Elmo” the Stockholm Sprite Moth had finally made it to the event. Maybe it’s the special anti-Goose light on the club pontoon that keeps attracting Moths to Nantwich?

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny with the sunlight glinting off the surface of an almost mirror like lake.

Unfortunately, Sam’s master plan to use the local Sea Cadets to provide the catering had hit a bit of a snag, as due to a last-minute injury they would be unable to do it.  A new plan was hatched and having raided the supermarket, Sam agreed to do the breakfasts and the lunches would be sorted with a bit of self-help, together with a suitable volunteer behind the galley. Wendy drew the short straw for this and once breakfast had finished set about making filled rolls and soup for lunch using the victuals that Sam had procured. A big thanks also go to the other members of Nantwich who joined in to help at short notice.

As the boats were being rigged the odd zephyr rustled the leaves on the trees by the race box, so we were hopeful that some breeze would materialise by the time racing started.

After a short welcome brief delivered by Sam in front of the clubhouse, things got under way and the Committee boat launched and a course was set. The first race started in a light shifty breeze and by the first mark the Richard in the varnished 1964 specification Fairey Albacore, original down to its ropes and through deck sheeting, took the lead followed closely by Ian in the Shelley Moth and Tim in the blue Skol. As the race progressed the fleet stretched then concertinaed back together as the wind backed, veered, puffed and died. Ian and Tim pulled away from the pack which was headed by the Albacore and Paul in the Sprite. Ian’s lead suddenly vanished near the end and the last leg to the finish saw a tight battle between Tim, Ian and Paul who had gradually worked his way to the front in his Moth.  Ian managed to hit the line first, just ahead of Paul with Tim dropping to third after losing his lead in a wind shift. Richard’s Albacore finished fourth, far enough ahead of the rest to hold that position on handicap.

After a break for lunch the fleet launched for two back-to-back races with the Race Officer making a slight course change from the earlier race. There was a bit of confusion during the start sequence for the second race as there didn’t appear to be any flags flying on the committee boat and the start signal was several seconds late, however the fleet got away cleanly.  A similar pattern emerged with the Moths of Paul and Ian hitting the front early and managing to stay ahead all the way to the finish despite the vagaries of the wind and the almost constant need to clear weed off the foils. Tim broke clear of the pack to finish third with Graham in fourth across the line, but they were pushed down to fourth and fifth on handicap by Roger in his well prepared and consistently well sailed Mirror. Graham Cooper was gradually getting to grips with the Mistral and managed to work his way through the fleet to join the other Moths at the front which pushed Richard down to sixth in the Albacore. 

Race 3 got under way without a hitch although the bunching in the middle of the line allowed Ian enough space to get away cleanly and he soon opened up an almost unassailable lead which he held to the finish. Tim and Graham emerged from the pack and gave chase finishing second and third respectively, however, Paul’s longer rudder proved to be a very effective weed catcher which caused him to slip back, before he capsized while trying hard to make up lost ground. Roger sailed another good race but couldn’t quite break the Moth’s dominance and finished a creditable fourth on handicap.

Highlight of the day was seeing the mystery boat on the water and despite only having small cotton sails set on wooden spars it showed amazing speed at times thanks to its long narrow hull form. It was really great to see different people out having a go in a Moth, with Sam’s Phobia and also the Warlock on the water. Despite his best attempts, Richard was unable to reassemble his Classic GP in time so chose to sail the varnished Fairey Albacore which looked fantastic on the water. Sadly, Tim couldn’t stay for Sunday so packed his boat up and headed home to Ripon, which was a real shame as he had shown the Skol to be extremely competitive in the light conditions.

Sam had pre-ordered fish and chips for everyone from the chippy in Audlem and when he got there to collect the order, he was met by an angry mob of locals because the chippy had closed its doors while they prepared our suppers! Needless to say, the food was gratefully received and a hush descended on the clubhouse while everyone tucked in.

Sunday arrived with a cloudy sky and a cool breeze that looked more consistent than it had been the day before. It was decided to get two back-to-back races in before lunch with the option to join in with club racing afterwards if so desired.  

With a marked Starboard bias to the line, it looked like starting close to the shore would be favoured and with a minute to go Paul and Ian were circling at that end, clearly with the same idea in mind. Roger had also spotted the bias and at the start it was these three boats that took an early advantage up the first beat. The Warlock and the Mistral were left for dead at the start with Tom’s Warlock tangling with the Committee boat and Graham standing up in his boat looking perplexed as he slowly crossed the start line. Paul tacked off early and found a hole to the right which allowed Ian to round the windward Mark comfortably ahead. Paul chased hard all the way to the end finishing a comfortable second with Richard’s Albacore in third. Richard maintained his third position on handicap just ahead of Roger in the Mirror.

The final race got underway with Ian and Paul at the starboard end of the line again. Having made a decent start this time and with the cockpit finally empty of water, Graham managed to stay in the breeze down the middle of the lake and get to windward mark in second behind Ian. Paul’s challenge faded as the race progressed which was not helped by at least one capsize…at least that’s one way to clear the weed off? The Albacores of Richard and Sandy broke clear of the rest of the pack and were able to finish third and fourth behind the two Moths just before the wind died and so were able to retain these positions on handicap. The remaining boats did well to finish at all with the breeze dropping away to almost nothing as lunch got underway.

The prize giving was held in front of the club and awarded by Sam as follows:

1st overall: Ian Marshall in Shelley Moth K2883

1st Club Boat: Richard Binns and crew in Albacore 1745

1st Mirror: Roger Oliva Knight in Mirror 58278

1st Club Mirror: Harry in Mirror 66521

Special prizes were awarded for:

Prettiest Boat: Graham Cooper in Mistral 4282

Not losing a boat off the trailer on the way: Gavin Gulliver Goodall in Nat 12 2709

Shortest entrant and youngest by a mile: Edward Trent (age 7) Mirror

Head of Land Support: Wendy Marshall

Thanks again to Sam and the team at Nantwich for hosting their first CVRDA event and we hope to be able to make it a regular fixture in future.   

Ian Marshall               

              

Results: