UK, Grafham Open 2014: Chris Field 1st

Report by Gordon Upton / British Assoc www.aclasscatamaran.co.uk

Grafham Water Cat Open 2014 - The view from the 'A' Class Fleet.
"Building on the momentum of the numbers we managed at the Nationals, 15 'A' Class travellers went to Grafham for their annual cat open, and the final BACCA ranking event of the year. The forecast for the weekend was to be 'breezy' according to the BBC weatherman, and he was spot on.

Saturday saw 3 races scheduled in a decent 14 - 20kt wind. The 'A' cats were starting with the other single handers, Shadows mainly, but with a Nacra Inter 17 in the mix too. So some 20 boats jostled for position on the first race start. However, they all behaved themselves and a clean start was the result. But the long legs of the A Class cats soon began to work, leaving the Shadows behind on the uphill stretches.

Heading to the top mark, is was found that the left hand side of the course seemed to be offering better winds and significant gains had been made found by those tacking off later. Rounding the top mark, through the 'zone of death', never much of an issue on an 'A' Class if you are in the right position, the fleet split left and right in search of the gusts we were all beginning to find. Chris Field soon began to get up on his Z foils and left the rest of the fleet for dead from then on. Everyone else, apart from Phil Neal on his Exploder, were 'Lowriders' so the Wild Thing (Flying the hull downwind) was the fastest technique to the bottom marks.

The wind was now starting to build and the gusts getting bigger, although the direction was pretty constant and big shifts were really not a problem. At the bottom marks, everyone chose the starboard rounding one to put themselves in position for the favoured upwind side.

The race continued in a similar vein for the other 2 laps but during which 2 boats retired after coming together and a couple of others found the conditions not to their liking and deciding discretion was the best part of valor. Jamie Walker decided against this policy and whilst bravely attempting to trapeze downwind on the finishing last leg, sailed straight out of end of his gust, resulting in a massive teabagging and subsequent capsize just yards short of the finish. Chris 1st, Phil Neal 2nd and Bob Fletcher 3rd.

Race two was similar to the first, but with another couple of clicks more wind this time. As the same course was being sailed by F18s, their downwind speed sometimes meant that they could arrive at the bottom mark at some pace with all the laundry still flying. These beasts give each other no quarter at all and the thought of being sandwiched between 4 boats at some 130kg+ each, trying to get around in the same bit of water in 20kt winds at the bottom mark made us all take it a little wider than usual. However, you can get your own back shortly afterwards as by carefully letting a little mast rotation out and dropping a tiny bit of downhaul, the net result is the A Cat suddenly points a couple of degrees higher, albeit at a slight loss of speed. But as we are faster upwind anyway, they then find out that you are squeezing them higher and higher upwind. The resulting industrial language only serves as confirmation that it is working and before long, you are left nicely alone.

In this race, Dave Lowe had found his Mojo and was really getting his DNA travelling, finding the right gusts and sailing tidily. The result was Chris 1st, Dave 2nd , Phil 3rd.

Race three was again similar, but by now the wind was really getting going and the gusts at the top of the course were starting to become unpleasant, resulting in some heavy teabagging action. And, as the wind increased, energy levels began to drop leaving crews starting to make mistakes. Ropes got tangled around feet, tacks were fluffed, cramp sets in and legs get swept off the boat by waves, leaving the helmsman to swing around and smack the back of his head on the hull near the front beam. That was me BTW. Luckily my Forward Sailing helmet saved me from a nasty injury! The race finished with Chris 1st, Dave 2nd and Phil 3rd.

Day two started reasonably sensibly, but again the weather promised even more of a blast starting at about 10.30AM. Race one started at…….10.30! Most of the A Cat sailors had decided that it might be prudent to sit this one out, but this message hadn't got through to Bob and Chris, who launched off. Everyone else watched with a morbid sense of curiosity.

The race started, Chris was really flying, but Bob was starting to struggle and sensibly gave up after one lap. Then even Chris sailed into one huge gust going upwind, recorded at 29kts. Watching from the clubhouse, we saw his sail let out, but the hull still kept rising, more sail out, more hull rising, but finally he got it back down again. He later admitted that this had freaked him out somewhat, as he had just sold the boat to Bob, he had better just try to trundle around and finish the race in one piece, which he did.

That was it for the weekend. At least there was a good days racing on Saturday and several people commented on how great it was to see the UK 'A' cat fleet growing at a good pace. A very well done to all those who took part and thanks to Grafham Water SC!

The final results were:
1st Chris Field
2nd Bob Fletcher
3rd Phil Neal
4th Dave Lowe
5th Struan Wallace
6th Gordon Upton
7th Ben Daignealt
8th Mick Davidson
9th Steve Sawford
10th Jamie Walker
11th Mike Bawden
12th Chris Sampson
13th= Colin Bannister
13th= Lester Barr
13th= Rob Cruickshank