Rig decisions

It was all about predicting the wind at the third round of the UK 12ft Skiff Bartercard Cup

The August bank holiday weekend saw a fleet of six 12ft Skiffs travel to Paignton for the third round of this year's Bartercard Cup series, which was run as part of Royal Torbay Week. With only one point separating the two leading boats in the series, this was set to be a hard-fought event, which certainly turned-out to be the case.

Day one saw broken sunshine and an eight to ten knot breeze, but with a possibility of a strengthening sea breeze, and three back-to-back races making rig changes impossible, the teams had to consider their rig choice carefully. This saw a split decision, with Nice Action and CST Composites going for their number one rigs, and the rest of the fleet playing it safe with their number two rigs. The winds stayed light during the first two races, allowing Nice Action to scoot away to two wins on their big rigs. Gear failure to CST in the first race saw them retiring, leaving Design Source/Gladstone to pick up two second places.

The wind built for the third race, leaving Nice Action fighting with an over-powered number one rig, and allowing the boats on the number two rigs to get fully powered-up. Design Source/Gladstone won this race convincingly by almost a lap over Nice Action, showing the difference the right rig choice can make.

Day two and grey skies greeted the slightly tired and hung-over crews, for what was set to be a memorable day of really close racing. Slightly more wind than the previous day resulted in all the teams choosing their number two rigs, except CST who were forced to choose their third rig as a result of the previous day's gear failure.

All three races saw constant position changes within the fleet, with the lead changing between Design Source/Gladstone and Nice Action on virtually every lap. On the final lap, Design Source/Gladstone managed to break away from Nice Action to get the bullet. Race two saw a battle royal ensue between Design Source/Gladstone and Nice Action, with Design Source/Gladstone pulling away upwind, only to be caught and passed by Nice Action on each downwind leg. At the beginning of the final lap, both boats rounded the leeward mark together but at the top mark, Design Source/Gladstone had managed to pull a small gap, leaving Nice Action with a big hill to climb. On the final leg, Nice Action managed to soak down slightly lower than Design Source/Gladstone and gybe on top of them, enabling them to take line honours by a matter of feet, giving the VIP guests on the Bartercard Spectator Boat a very exciting afternoon.

In the third race, the top two boats again battled it out all the way round, but this time line honours went to Design Source/Gladstone following a swim by Nice Action during a kite drop. So at the end of day two, Nice Action and Design Source/Gladstone were both on seven points, with a second place discard each.

Day three dawned to very grey skies and noticeably more breeze. Although Windguru was forecasting 11kts, Brixham SC were getting readings of over 20kts with big gusts of up to 30kts. After much contemplation all teams went for number three rigs, expecting a solid and building breeze out on the course. As it turned-out, the wind on the race course was not as strong as expected, meaning the boats were under-powered and really in need of their number two rigs.

With a lighter crew weight, Nice Action romped away from Design Source/Gladstone in this marginal breeze. Realising that they had lost this race, and by staying on their three rig, would probably lose the final race also, Design Source/Gladstone took the brave move of binning the first race and heading back to the beach to do a super-fast rig change. Forty minutes later they were back on the start line for the final race, but unfortunately had just missed their starting window, meaning that they'd count a DNS, giving the event to Nice Action by just one point.

So the fleet now head to Datchet for the final round of the 2008 Bartercard Cup with Nice Action and Design Source/Gladstone in equal first place with 16 points each.
The 12ft Skiff fleet would like to thank everyone involved in organising and running Royal Torbay Week, and particularly the staff and members of Paignton SC for making the skiff fleet so welcome.

Results:

1-Nice Action - Bob Clements and Alan Atterbury
2-Design Source/Gladstone - Chris Gandy and Tom Vian
3-CST Composites - Andy Lang and Tom Gruitt
4-Bartercard - Simon Roberts and Tim Noyce
5-Team WB - Stu Tinner and Ratface
6-Aquaskipper - Neil Cardno and Ken Scott-Brown