Photographs courtesy and Copyright David Gates, The Dinghy Store
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Sunday 23rd Feb saw the
competitors arriving much warmer air temperatures than the
previous week, but initially a not much wind. The forecast was
for Force 2-3 S to SE veering in the afternoon to SW. But
as you can see from the table below the average wind direction
every hour stayed Southerly according to Heathrow reports. The
average direction might have been southerly but there were large
differences out on the race track
The wind gave the race team a few headaches
for race two of the day. Having started the Laser fleet the wind
direction changed sufficiently that the race officer decided to
abandoned their race and change the course - in fact it was the
same set of fixed buoys but rounding to port instead of
starboard using the previous wing mark as the new windward mark! |
| Hourly
climatic information from Heathrow Airport |
| Time |
Temp (C) |
Speed (mph) |
Direction |
| 10:00 |
10 |
9 |
S |
| 11:00 |
11 |
9 |
S |
| 12:00 |
12 |
8 |
S |
| 13:00 |
13 |
8 |
S |
| 14:00 |
13 |
12 |
S |
| 15:00 |
13 |
12 |
S |
| 16:00 |
12 |
12 |
S |
| 17:00 |
11 |
9 |
S |
There were big gains to be made if the competitors read the wind
direction changes and found the areas of stronger breeze!
Two incidents noted by the race team this week were
 | an F18 Cat that almost caught the windward mark between its hulls
whilst launching its spinnaker |
| two boats that hit the finish boat but only one knew what they
then had to do to exonerate themselves |
The Request for Redress, regarding the decision the previous week by
the Protest Committee to disqualify all competitors except one from Race
3 of the series following a protest by one competitor in the Asymmetric
Fleet that everyone except themselves sailed the incorrect course, was
denied.
Any reports from competitors welcomed for inclusion.
Note - next year there will be 5 Sundays of
racing in the series, an event that can happen only every 28 years.
