Shoreham Snipe Open - Day 1

Pete Tipler from Stromness SC is competing in the Snipe Open in Shoreham this weekend with Richard Lambert (a regular visitor to Orkney for the Holm and Westray regattas).  Day one began with very calm (6 knot) winds, and after an hour paddling out into the English Channel and another hour waiting for the wind to decide which way it was going to blow we got under way.

Right on queue as the 5 minute gun sounded the wind picked up.  1 minute to go and we were suddenly in a force 4.  Good stuff.

Course was triangle, sausage, triangle, sausage, sausage, finish.  On the second triangle on the down wind leg with the whisker pole out we reached the jibe mark.  Unfortunately the pole stayed out, for a long time.  We couldn't retract it, sailed straight beyond the next mark and off into the "distance".  After a while we sorted it and were now right at the back (having been about mid-fleet when the trouble started), so we retired.

Ready to start the second race but then it was postponed; think a mixture of tide, weather, and the fact we had been out on the water so long in the cold.

Another 2 races due tomorrow, if we do well in those two we can discard today's DNF.

Fingers crossed!

Photographs from last year at the link below...