Round 4 Fat Face Circuit – Beer Sailing Club      

The long awaited return to Beer Sailing Club was over! The fleet descended upon the small, friendly club on the 28/29^th June praying for the same awesome conditions as experienced by the lucky few the previous year. With the prospect of those fantastic sleigh ride waves, 32 boats made the trip down to Devon for the 4^th round of the Fat Face Circuit.

Saturday's first race started in 12-15kts and saw the only to be expected general recall courtesy of a building tide sweeping people early to the line. The second start got away cleanly under black flag which then remained a feature for the rest of the event. It was Justin Deal and Ollie Page (Fat Face), who won the biased pin end of the line and tacked off in a clear lane to lead the fleet out to the right. A well judged layline call saw them round the windward mark first from Alistair and Penny Shires with the rest of the fleet in close pursuit. A good downwind leg saw Brett Ellway and Jaimie Bick move into second with lots of surfing down the waves despite the fairly light pressure. Deal/Page tacked off at the leeward mark in search of more pressure whilst Ellway/Bick stayed on in towards Beer Head cliffs. The right side favoured and Ellway/Bick crossed Deal/Page at the windward mark but were then overhauled on the run. By the finish Deal/Page had pulled out a decent lead from Ellway/Bick with Chris Webber and Dave Steed taking third from Adrian and Julia Coatsworth who put in a good performance for their first race back in the fleet in 2008.

The second race saw slightly more pressure but the tactics were similar with a pin end start, tacking onto port then drag racing for the layline. It was again the Deal/Page team who won the start and got the boat into the groove in the 12-14kt breeze to pull out a commanding lead by the windward mark. Spod Olive (Harken) with borrowed top crew Roz Allen found their form to take second at the finish from the charging Ellway/Bick and Alistair and Penny Shires put in a solid performance to pick up 4^th.

 
By the 3rd race, the wind freshened and continued to do so throughout building to around 18kts - although the guy stationed at the windward mark judged it to be only 11kts (they breed 'em tough down there!). The swell picked up from nowhere and the classic Beer conditions prevailed with much sleigh riding to be done resulting in a few trawls and cartwheels but some awesome rides! It was again Deal/Page who seemed unstoppable, and despite being pushed hard by Ian Martin/Adam Broughton (Magic Marine) took their third win of the day – a great achievement in the range of breeze.

Behind was a war of attrition for third place – early contenders Tom Halhead & Christian Humphreys went for a swim during the second lap. Spod/Allen suffered the same fate at the top of the final run and at the finish it was Schooling & Hirst who took third from Ellway/Bick and Charlie Roome & Steve Hall in fifth.

Overnight the fleet their best to prevent a whitewash from Deal & Page, plying them with significant amounts of alcohol to hinder their performance. But alas the hangovers didn’t stop them - they started Sunday where they finished the night before tacking immediately out of the start line of race four and sailing off into the distance for a fourth race win.

Behind them in the tricky slop it was Roome/Hall, Ellway/Bick and Martin/Broughton who completed the first lap in that order. Martin/Broughton pulled through on the next beat and eventually went on to take second. Recent Stokes Bay open Silver fleet winners Webber/Steed chased to take third at the finish from Roome/Hall.

Dave Pike and Claire Booth cleared the fleet on port in race 5 and headed out hard right chased by the pack. Tacking out slightly later, Deal & Page again showed devastating pace to lift away from the fleet in the drag race to the corner. After another well judged layline call they led round the windward mark from Schooling/Hirst with the Shires and Pike/Booth close behind. At the finish Deal/Page crossed the line half a leg ahead and kept the kite up heading for shore with a clean 5 bullets. The fleet hadn’t seen form this devastating since Barton & Allen won the Garda EuroCup in 2006 with seven wins from eight starts! Schooling/Hirst finished a comfortable 2^nd and again Webber & Steed had a good last beat to pull up to 3^rd at the finish from Alex Cherry and John Clifton.

At the start of the final race the wind had dropped off to around 7kts which made it tricky to keep the boat moving in the short waves. Andy Cornah & Orwin Murray made the best of the conditions and led round first from Tom Halhead & Christian Humphrey. On the run the pack closed up on the leaders and by the leeward mark it was anybody’s race – especially with Deal / Page back on shore! The breeze picked up and swung left on the second beat which saw positions change again and by the finish Halhead and Humphrey took a narrow victory from Cornah/Murray and Cherry/JC in third.

Back ashore the fleet were treated to some of the sailing club ladies delightful home cooking – Beer sailing club really do know how to make a travelling fleet welcome! At the prize giving it was Cherry and Clifton who took the Silver fleet win. Having kept it consistent on Sunday, Brett Ellway and Jaimie Bick scored a well deserved third place after a great performance on Saturday. Chris Webber and Dave Steed showed they are a force to be reckoned with for forthcoming Garda and put a very consistent series together to take second. But the weekend was all about the Fat Face team of Justin Deal and Ollie Page with a perfect score of 5 race wins will anyone be able to challenge them at Eastbourne on the 12^th/13^th July?

Ben Schooling

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A few words from Brett Ellway who sailed a great event:

This sort of racing is probably one of the strengths of the class: when you look around you, there are an awful lot of good sailors - some old (no offence, Mr Birbeck) some new, all of whom can get up there. All the more congratulations then to Justin and Ollie in particular and Chris and Dave for their consistency. For those who are thinking "this is tougher than I thought", take heart in that I am sure all of the fleet have been through tough learning stages: I for one, as principally a crew in cherubs, skiffs etc, spent many a happy day sending us both swimming on virtually every gybe
learning to helm. And Jaimie, my new crew, really only started to sail in the 800 last year and is now doing a great job up the front. So with time on the water, a bit of coaching and some gentle encouragement (I am sure you have all heard me gently "coaxing" Jaimie!), the performances will come.
 

Technically, the weekend threw up some thoughts about how to make the boat go quickly in the larger waves, and I do have a theory that the additional wind shear at the top of the mast compared to the bottom may have been a factor in why me sailing with less kicker, jib tracks still fairly well in but eased, resulting more twist helped with boat speed.
 
Overall thoughts:
Great place to sail - proper waves, bit of tide, fairly steady wind (compared to Stokes Bay!).
Great club - friendly, good cakes!
Great little holiday venue.
 
All of which makes it a must for the calendar despite any hernias sustained getting the boats out. Thanks to all for making it a great weekend. Looking forward to Eastbourne with a chastening reminder that "past performance is no guide to the
future"!