Here’s the report about 49er National Ranker weekend on 03/10/09 from Richard Mason and Tom Peel:

Last weekend was the first of 3 events that make up the national ranking series in the UK. The two days of the event could not have been more different.

Saturday started with a postponement for all fleets as the race officer described in the competitors briefing that “Conditions were un-sailable because of the 28 gusting 33kt winds in the harbour”. However at 2.30, after a small decrease in the breeze, the 49er fleet was released.

Although there were 9 boats entered for the event, only 6 launched. This was a blessing because the competitors who decided to race needed the help of those staying ashore to hold their boats down whilst pulling their sails up to stop the boats capsizing onshore.

By the time the first race started there where only 5 boats left. Team Murka lead the ever-diminishing fleet to the first mark and continued in the lead for the first lap, but at on the second downwind disaster, as the steadily increasing (now around 28kts) got the better of the team and they capsized on the gybe. After a short swim Richard and Tom righted the boat and continued to fight it around the course.

At the beginning of the third and final downwind the wind had got up even more and Team Murka started to struggle. After a number of capsizes down the run and the wind continuing to get up, Rich and Tom just couldn’t pull in another bear away at the bottom of the run, where the sea state was much more choppy and after about 15 minutes they were going to be timed out and so despondently sailed home.

Sunday was a completely different day. Sunshine and a light northerly wind meant that all fleets launched on time and racing commenced quickly, with the race officer keen to make up for yesterdays lost races. Team Murka again lead the first race for the first two laps but a miss-judgment of the bias on the leeward gate cost them a number of places, they finished 9th.

The run of bad luck continued over to the next two races. With the wind very fickle and the Murka boys suffering from a severe lack of pace they could never get the boat going well. Rich said:

“I’m really not sure what happened. We couldn’t get the boat moving properly in the first race, but we were on top of it tactically. As soon as we made a couple of mistakes it all went downhill.”

The pair finished the weekend a disappointing 10th. They now have 3 weeks in Weymouth before the next ranker to figure out what was going wrong.