High wind Grand Slam

An early Weston Grand Slam saw snow and 40 knot winds

With Easter being early this year, it should have been no surprise that we were in for one of the coldest Grand Slams in history. Good Friday started very windy with hail, rain and even a few flakes of snow. Eventually it cleared and the wind seemed to moderate so the fleet were given the all clear to launch. Four B14s were ready to go but as we got ready to launch the breeze returned with a vengeance. 30 minutes later and after several swims we all decided the beach was the best place to be and thankfully we were all ashore without too much damage. B14 Credo (Theo Gayler and Jack Spencer) managed to have a close encounter with a rescue boat but otherwise the boats that sailed were unscathed. Racing was abandoned for the day with good reason. A check on the local weather station showed regular gusts of just under 40 knots throughout the day, including just after we had launched in the morning!

Saturday dawned very windy again and also still an extremely cold 3°C without wind chill. As similar conditions to the day before, racing was again abandoned for the day.

Sunday seemed more promising. It was still only 3°C and snowing only a few miles away. A forecast of just 20 knots, we looked forward of finally getting some racing underway. With over 40 entrants, the Asymmetric fleet was the biggest fleet at the event.

Race five started in a building (18 knot upwards) westerly breeze. The fleet got away first time despite an RS800 pile up on the outer distance mark. B14 Acxiom (Mark Emmett and Alan Stuart) led the B14s up the first leg chasing the RS800s and I14s, closely followed by Credo, B14 Hyde Sails (Toby Barsley-Dale and Dawn Barsley-Dale) and B14 Ince&Co (Mark Watts and Kathy Sheratt) who somehow managed to start a little late.

As the race progressed, the wind swung more northerly and continued to be gusty providing testing conditions. By the end Acxiom led from Hyde Sails, then Ince&Co. A quick break to warm up and then race six started with the wind continuing to swing right and with gusts getting more potent all the time. This time it was Acxiom caught on the line but eventually managed to get free of the ODM and chase the rest of the fleet, led by Ince & Co. As the wind swung more northerly and offshore the gusts got noticeably stronger and provided big opportunities for gains or losses and enabled Acxiom to close the gap to Ince&Co. Up the next beat Acxiom passed up the inside to lead by a small margin at the top mark, however coming down the last run a huge gust caught the leaders who were suddenly screaming along 30° low of the mark. Ince&Co caught Acxiom and passed them at the bottom of the beat while ferocious gusts ripped through the fleet to just pip them at the finish line. Over night I14 1463 (Julian Pearson) led, with equal points to Acxiom with RS800 1083 (Spod Olive) just behind.

Monday dawned much lighter with more RS800s and less B14s attending. Acxiom and Hyde Sails started together and crossed several times in the first lap, but were unable to hang on to the RS800s who managed to pull away. The wind swung quickly to the North again and while Acxiom managed to stay ahead of Hyde Sails, the gap to the RS800s was noticeably larger this time. Race eight started with the wind lighter and in the north, bouncing off the trees and Weston towers which provided very gusty testing conditions. This time Hyde Sails led the B14s at the top mark, followed by Acxiom and again chasing the RS800s, however Acxiom passed down the first run and then started to stretch away. After four laps the order remained the same. Overall RS800 1083 won the event from Acxiom in second followed by 49er 314 (Ron Price), RS800 857 (Neil Baker and Jon Blackburn) and RS400 846 (Chris Aston). All round a great event, well run by the race team, but let’s hope it’s a lot warmer next year.

Results, here .