Big Monday - 2019

There can’t be many better ways to follow a ‘Super Sunday’ than by holding a ‘Big Monday’ at Parkstone! Full marks to Roberta and Andrew for excellent planning. Below is a results table (totally unofficial!) taking the two races as a mini-series. It all looks very tight in the Standard fleet. It’s interesting to note that both the gate boats finished in 2nd place. Another noteworthy result was Michael Atkinson’s 9th place result in race 1 since he started a minute after all the other Standards!






A couple of unofficial awards that might be of interest are:

• Most inconsistent sailor: Courtenay Suckling who slumped from a magnificent 3rd place in race 1 to a humbling 18th place in race 2. I can only assume that during the interval between the two races someone told him the result of the Cricket World Cup! Fingers crossed for the netball and your next week’s races, Courtenay.
• Highest placed, most consistent sailor with a difference of 0: Owain Hughes
• Most Improved sailing over the two races: Tim Alder, moving from the bottom third of the fleet in race 1 to the top third in race 2.
• Most interesting event of the evening: Peter Taylor. You may not have seen Pete Taylor’s start in race 2 so allow me to paint the scene for you. Imagine if you will a British oil tanker serenely making its way through the straits of Hormoz, (that was Pete after passing behind the gate boat). Suddenly he was approached rapidly by an Iranian gun boat in the form of Emiliano’s laser, who had surprised everyone by starting without all the fuss of passing behind the gate-boat. There being no friendly British warship on hand to defuse the situation, a collision seemed likely. In an attempt to board his target vessel, Emiliano managed to lasso Peter with his mainsheet. There followed a full and frank exchange of views as to which vessel should have given way! Everyone, including the gate-boat watched agog expecting at the very least that one of the boats would end up sinking the other. However, diplomacy won the day with Pete promising he would certainly not encroach on Emiliano’s water for the rest of the race. Thank goodness we didn’t need to call on Trump to sort out this international incident! In fact, Pete was in a good enough mood, after I had bought him a beer, to allow that being forced to tack after this event did actually help him to go the right way up the 1st beat.

As you can see from the table below, the top end of the Radial fleet has a familiar look to it. Nothing much has separated the top three all season, so I guess it was predictable that, in what seems to have become habitual light airs for Monday nights’ sailing, they would, once again, be at the forefront of the action. Good though they are, they didn’t have it all their own way. Richard Jennings led the first race for a whole lap before giving way. In race two, Kiersten Metcalfe surprised our leading stars, (and maybe herself?), by reaching the windward mark first. But, as followers of the Peter’s principle have observed many times, the cream always rises to the top and Roberta and Ann won the evening’s two races. However, Eve can congratulate herself on being the more consistent of the three!
 

Whatever regime Martin Cowell follows in between races should be of interest to us all. Managing to improve from 13th in the first race to 3rd in the second is noteworthy to say the least. Next time I catch him in the bar, I’ll be quizzing him closely to find out how he did it – watch this space as they say! The difference in Helen Parsonage’s results were nearly as large but sadly (or maybe not), she started on a high note rather than finishing on one.

The Radial fleet couldn’t emulate the starting skirmish of Pete and Emiliano, in the Standards, but Sam Norton did her best to add a bit of interest to my journey as Gate-boat in race 1. However, it was a much more English affair. As she crossed my bow, she politely enquired what she should do next. I was most impressed not to hear any language of an Anglo-Saxon nature when she received the information that she now had to go round the committee boat!

None of the above explains how I managed to finish 12th after being Gate-boat. I wonder who was the heaviest person in the Radial fleet- I’m just saying!

14 lady helms on the water would be a very impressive result for most clubs. But for Parkstone it’s becoming almost a regular occurrence. By way of tribute to their endeavours, I have produced a table of results as if the races had been ladies only, (note: I am not suggesting this for Mondays!).
 
And so, another Big Monday has been enjoyed. Sadly, we didn’t break our record for boats on the water but 47 sailors taking part is an excellent turn-out by anyone’s standard. We owe a massive vote of thanks to Bob Jennings and his race team. Thanks to Brian Drake and crew, Bob was able to cope with the vaguery of the wind by having an extra rib to mark-lay, which gave us the excellent evening’s sailing we all had.

A few of us may remember ‘The Four Seasons’ and will agree with them when they sang, “Oh, what a night!”.

Dog Robber Rtd