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The wind had been blowing its socks off for around three days but on Saturday morning appeared to have dropped off slightly. I wasn't convinced though, as Bewl is very open.
As we rigged up, Graham Brewer and Andrew Johnson arrived. Andrew was feeling very lucky today ( all will be revealed later!). Graham was running first in the LBSA series, and Andrew Johnson second. With the arrival of Jess Ash (and father with raceboard) we had the top three Aloha sailors in the series present, and I realised I had serious competition.
As it was the finals, there were lots of people there, mostly with raceboards, but plenty in the 103 class as well, including Ian Pullen from the South East squad.
At the briefing, a beautiful course was set, an M with the start across the water with the upwind leg towards the dam. We all went out for the first race, and it was quite windy in the gusts, but the lulls were pretty bad as well. It was interesting. At the start, Graham Brewer headed off as expected, leaving Jess Ash, Andrew Johnson and me contending for second place.
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Jess was slightly ahead of me, but tacked too early. Andrew was in front of both of us, having done a storming start and first upwind leg. At the buoy Jess found herself quite far downwind, and I squeezed round the mark to get in front of her. Andrew was ahead by about ten yards but I did a slicker 'mast track back and daggerboard up' so got on the plane earlier. I took the 'high road' and soon overtook him, then blasted off in search of Graham Brewer.
On the third reach I noticed that Jess had overtaken Andrew and was after me! She, being light, could plane earlier than me and go faster in the lulls, and by skillfully using all the wind she was catching me up. So much so that I found I was only just in front of her at buoy four. She took the high road and so had better wind, but she was foiled by having to overtake some tail-end raceboards above, and so dropped off the plane. I went broad and kept my speed, and with a few well-timed pumps pulled away again.
The positions stayed the same for the second lap so I came in as first Junior, with Jess second and Andrew third. Graham was first youth and overall winner of the Alohas.
In the second race the positions were the same for the first lap. I was quite far ahead but was not helped by a raceboard blowing his gybe in front of me at buoy four, so I had to bail out to avoid horrible injury on his part and expense on mine!
So Jess had caught up quite a lot. I started to pull away but blew my tack around buoy five allowing her to overtake me - bad mistake! Jess suddenly seemed to find form, and I lost all upwind speed, so she convincingly won our class in the second race, with me second and Andrew third.
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Time for lunch, a 'Bewl Brunch' (highly recommended), and all (well, some) energy was restored, and as there was an hour before the next race Andrew and I went blasting (on Alohas? Yes, we're crazy). By this time the wind had come up and the gusts were getting silly so we were utterly knackered but hey! who cares.
The third race was, er... interesting. As in the gusts I was finding the Aloha 6.5 diabolical, imagine what Jess and Andrew felt, both smaller and lighter than me. These are my favourite racing conditions, and the others weren't that keen on them, so the upshot was that I won the Juniors by a good 2 legs, with Jess second and Andrew third.
And Brewer? Well in this race I overtook Graham at buoy four by gybing inside him, but he found more speed than me so pulled out a 200 yard gap which he used to the fullest extent, winning overall yet again!!
Fourth race - serious gusts - the Aloha sail wasn't taking it too well, and I often found myself with my hands five feet apart on the boom to 'control' the beast. My carve gybes went well, so once again I came in behind Graham, with Jess following. As there was one discard, Andrew decided to retire, as he couldn't improve his position anyway.
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At the prizegiving, they started with the day's events, then moved on to the results of the LBSA series, eight races in all. James Moon got the raceboard trophy, Graham Brewer won the Aloha series, and Jess Ash was first girl.
Andrew Johnson was second Aloha in the series which was great, and there was a raffle to win a top of the range Kawasaki mountain bike (with suspension - everything!). Everyone who had competed in five races won something, from Kawasaki pens to water bottles.
And guess what, Andrew won the bike!
p.s. Thanks to the LBSA for a great event, and all the organising. And thanks to Bewl for everything, including the brunch.
