Ahoy Club Summer Series Reveler Ive written a lot in the past about the Division 1 Rockstars and the Division 3 Life and Soul of the Club. Today, its about the Goldilocks Principle and the ones in between being just right! This article covers the exciting second race date in the Club Summer Series, held on Saturday 15 March 2014. Races 3 & 4 in the series were sailed back to back on the day. Race 3 was a bit of a light wind lottery of loops between #10 and #2, in a dying westerly that was busy being swallowed by a building south easter. The race was shortened after just one loop. Race 4 was a pleasant short course dice up and down the beach between Harken and Woodbridge in an 18-20 knot south easter. Today, to my recollection, was the first time in the four year history of having three club divisions, that the Club Division 2 fleet was the largest fleet on the water. What makes that very special is that this fleet is the smallest fleet in the club with respect to the number of active yachts that slot into the relatively narrow relevant rating band between Club Division 1 and Club Division 3. The extremely popular twilight series for all-comers underlines this in the participation stats with Div 1 - 31 yachts; Div 2 - 22 yachts ;& Div 3 - 33 yachts. In the last year, Division 2 has also lost a few yachts that were very regularly and successfully campaigned - Necessity, Pure Magic and Regent Express (all yachts sold and have left the club), and Hillbilly has been out of action for ages with mast and then rudder issues. One of the yachts sailing in Division 1 on the day, Me2Me, is eligible to sail in Division 2, but has chosen to sail in Division 1 this season. Had they elected to sail in Division 2, that would have made it 6 out of 13 yachts on the water on Saturday belonging to Division 2. Because all divisions on the day sailed the same courses, one can get an overall picture of performance from each division relative to the others. Bearing that in mind, in an overall result, the Division 2 yachts cleaned up. Expanding that further, looking at the results, Division 2 was by far the most competitive on the water, with an encouragingly close tussle on corrected times in both races held on the day, especially Race 4, where just 1m38s separated the first four yachts in this division on corrected time, and the yacht that came 5th in Race 4 won the preceding Race 3! In the four races held in the series to date, there have been three different winners in Div 2, and the top three in the division overall to date are separated by just one point. If one included a discard at this stage, there would still be just 1 point that separates the first three yachts. Add to this some missing performers and regular club division 2 participators like Lapwing, HillBilly and Freedom, and you can see a potently very close and competitive fleet continuing to develop in Division 2. The results in the Twilight Series also confirm this close competition in the division, with both the Div 2 Spin and Non Spin fleets showing tight competition between the top three yachts in each, and also very good participation levels, amongst the highest in the club. Yet another encouraging sign is that none of these yachts are IRC yachts, all of them trust the club RRD system to score them in these close races. Close competition raises the bar, and fair competition lifts camaraderie and spirit. These are the days to enjoy and remember...because there is something very special growing in this division. Lets get all the Division 2 Farr38s, Simonis 35s, L34s, J27s and the yachts like Celine IV, Touch & Go, Yolo, Always Well, etc on the water and sail like legends! All of the above, in support and recognition of Division 2, might serve as a positive motivation to the Division 1 & 3 fleets to join us on the water for the next Club Summer Series date, to be sailed on 26 April, and the last date in the series to be sailed 10 May 2014. Viva Div 2 on the rise! Luke
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 06:51:46 +0000
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