OCSGheaderlogo
The GOSSIP

Number 144 / May 2003

Home Table Of Contents Contact

Published by the Open Canoe Sailing Group

Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3

Force Four? No Bother At Rother! (RoyB)

"Thirty-one miles an hour", said SteveR emphatically as we were breaking camp at the end of a most lively and enjoyable weekend. No, this was not the velocity of his new prototype plastic trimaran but wind speed. It had been fresh on both days, strengthening on Sunday, and the crew of the twelve OCSG boats on the water had made the most of it. On a larger stretch of water - Coniston, for example - such conditions would have intimidated many members, but on the much smaller Rother Valley lake, with safety boats on hand, we could happily try our skill and craft in demanding weather. A poor forecast had probably put off some sailors as the numbers were on the low side. However the sun shone brightly on both days, the rain confining itself to Saturday night. On Saturday morning those who had come on Friday and the new arrivals got their kit out, so to speak, and the new season began!

Innovations
There were many usual suspects, of course, but IainH tried out his new self-built trimaran for the first time, DaveT hoisted a handsome gunter sail which he and Noeline had made in their front parlour, NigelC put on a slender kayak with experimental outrigger and later on SteveR arrived with the aforementioned Solway Dory specimen. Much food for discussion - the usual OCSG groups standing round the object of interest, heads bowed, the odd finger pointing expertly, sage nods; like doctors over a patient. Canoes whizzed about in the force 2/3, occasional gust 4. But no meet with RodL as an organiser is simply sailing.

Antics
After lunch he explained that we were going to practise retrieving 'man overboard', more accurately, very large petrol container overboard. He and Keith showed us by diagram how to tack and approach the victim slowly on the downwind side. And then HowardJ arrived with the results of his spring-cleaning. The man overboard was left floundering in the water whilst his potential saviours hunted for bargains amongst Howard's cast-offs. We all have our price. After this retail therapy normal service was resumed, Rod, Walter, Renate, Jim and JohnS all successfully heaving said object into their boats. It was by no means plain sailing, though, as judging the approach - not too fast, not too slow - proved tricky at times. Then on to steering without a rudder, by paddle. SteveR explained how the absence of a rudder changes the centre of lateral resistance and hence the direction in which the canoe tends to point. Setting the paddle at various angles can then be used to exaggerate this tendency. (I hope I've got that right.) Anyway, it provided some interesting activity. It's always useful, I think, to try and do something new with one's canoe in order to become more familiar with its behaviour. At 6 p.m. there were still quite a few canoes out, evidence of the good sailing to be had. Later on about a dozen of us ate cheaply and well in the golf club bar on the site.

Going to the races
By 9 o'clock on Sunday morning the rain had ceased and the clouds were breaking up. The wind was blowing a little stronger, but not too much to prevent racing. It was decided to have two short races, the combined points for which would determine the overall ranking places. Rod got the wardens to lay a buoy for the start and the course - basically a lap of the lake - was set. A start procedure of 3 horn blasts to signal 5 mins, 1 min and 'go' got things away. Renate & PaulW and Keith were quickly over the line into the wind, but at the first mark, a buoy by the far bank in a 'hole' in the wind, Steve led and the following four boats established positions that were maintained to the finish. The beat back after rounding the island at the lower end of the lake proved to be hard.

Iain found his trimaran disinclined to go about, despite behaving itself otherwise. GrahamH, sporting two outriggers and going well, had to retire with a broken mast, but everyone else finished, a tribute in this strong wind to the generally increasing competence of OCSG sailors. The second race followed a similar pattern, this time John having to retire as his canoe was sailing in, rather than on, the water. Keith also shipped a lot, a particular problem for a monohull in the conditions, he thought. The fine brass Dutch barge horn was lent by Paul and at the start of the second race the starter held his hat aloft from the 1 min signal and lowered it at 'go'. This visual sign seemed to help, hopefully to be adopted (using a flag?) at future races.

Multi-hulls

The second race gets under way with SteveR already in the lead.

In the discussions afterwards two points interested me. Steve said that racing his trimaran was just as energetic as racing his monohull, i.e. trimarans are not necessarily an 'older person's' boat. The idea of somehow putting trimarans into their own racing category was also mooted, although I'm inclined to think that these results indicate boat-handling skill as much as anything else. Steve, Walter, Iain, Jim and Graham (also Bernard, who had to leave early on Sunday so didn't race) sailed trihulls, fully half the number of OCSG craft at the meet. However three of them suffered mast failure; Graham's (wood) snapped, Walter's bent over to about 60 degrees and the steel bracket holding Jim's to the thwart sheered off. It shows the stress that a multihull imposes on the mast in such strong wind. (Without in any way wishing to re-activate the quite futile question: 'What is a canoe?'**, the editor would be interested in members' observations on the development of multi-hulls in the OCSG.) In the afternoon we gained, it seems, at least 2 more members. JohnW

Home | Table Of Contents | Contact

Next >