Blazes at the Grafham Grand Prix
Pete Barlow reports on the fortunes of the Blazes at the 2009 Grafham Grand Prix.
The day started with a sickening slide as I tried to stop the car and boat at the T junction in my village. Overnight the rain and sleet had solidified into Black ice and I ended up in a jack-knife position at 6:40 am in the middle of the High st.
The ice at Grafham was equally treacherous with most of the slipways dotted with patches of ice to catch the unwary. Numbers seemed to be down on the previous year with about 20% of the signed up boats not showing up. Probably due to the weather the previous days.
The course was shared with the Slow handicap boats like Flying fifteens, Albacore RS200 and Taser who sailed the same trapezium course except for a lower leeward bouy to separate the fleets. The single hander fleet included Phantoms , Finns, Challengers ,Lasers and Solo with the Challengers having their own race within the race.
Four Blazes started the race. Mike Lyons (769), Pete Barlow (758), Sam Pickering (595), Andy McIvor (751) 'HMS Boyo'
I cannot give a blow by blow account of much of the race as my head was trying to warm up after a pre race gibe capsize in the F4-5 conditions. I managed to get a good start and was within a couple of boat lengths of Lyons and Phantom 1359 ( Simon Hawkes ) at the first mark. The second leg was a chance to get a breather but during this high speed reach a Phantom inched passed. The third leg was supposed to be a dead run but most of the boats gibed and zigzagged down wind. The reach back to the leeward mark was mega fun as I managed to catch up to the phantom and was on his stern at the rounding.
Upwind the waves were quite bouncy and the spray was a cold shower every couple of seconds. I even took refuge in the lee of flying fifteen for a slight rest for a few hundred yards before tacking for clear air. A couple of tacking errors lost me another few yards and another phantom came through. By the third lap I was now about 100 yards behind Lyons who retired on the downwind leg after pulling a muscle in his back. This left me slightly exposed as my eyes are not great and I need a familiar boat in front to show me the way. I was praying for a finish at the end of the third lap as I was very strained and feeling a little nauseous due to the effort involved. During the last lap I managed to retake a position and ended up third place .
Pete (758) 3rd
Sam (595) 7th
Andy (751) 12th
The second race started at 1.30 with the wind lowering to a 3-4. Despite having a dry set of gloves for the second race I was already frozen by the start and ended up being squeezed at the committee boat by several Challengers who were able to park themselves on the line. The first leg was a Mare with one capsize and going into irons once. This left me behind most boats with only 4 behind me at the first mark. The downwind legs were fast and all the phantoms followed their leader and zigzagged the downwind leg loosing a few places in doing so as several capsized.
Upwind I tried to sail a little freeer and concentrated on speed rather than pointing. This gained me a few places in the second lap and a few more in the third. The phantoms were more in their element in these conditions and I had a few very close tussles on the reaches with Phantom 1223 but he fell by the wayside on the upwind and let me through. On the last lap with a view of the leaders I pushed hard to keep the boat flat and go for speed gaining another place from a tired phantom. Eventually ending up with 5th place
Overall results can be found here.
Pete Barlow
Blaze results:
Pete (758) 4th
Sam (595) 9th
Andy (751) 12th