A view from the beach - POSH 2024

Published 16:11 on 14 May 2024

For Ben and I, POSH started on Thursday night when we went to Paignton Green to set up. Posts and tape were placed round the edge, and the tent went up easily. The council bollards have taken a bit of a beating over the past few years, and it was a struggle to get two side-by-side out. I found where the water had been turned off and managed to get the padlock open after tapping it with a lump hammer!

This year the Vareos used POSH as part of their nationals, so they sailed on the Friday by themselves. I was drafted at the last minute to be on our club committee board (COVID is still a thing,). Our club committee boat (Jubilee) was looking a bit sad last year, but over the winter Nick (with a little help from other club members) has rejuvenated it and it looks fantastic now! The weather was light and easterly when we went out and Nick used his GPS to set the course. It was great to have some colour with the Vareo Spinnakers coming down the run. The first race ran to within a few seconds of its predicted time, but by the time we were halfway through the second race the wind had softened and the race was shortened. After waiting a bit to see if the wind would settle, we took a poll of the sailors and tried to do a shortened course race with 3 laps. Again we got halfway through before having to shorten, by this time the wind had dropped so much that some of the Vareos were towed in. Nick got me driving Jubilee fortunately, there wasnt enough water in the harbour for me to park it!

Junior sailing continued that evening, thanks to Si and Aiden, whilst I kept an eye on the arriving sailors for the first proper day of POSH.

Saturday saw the wind still easterly, but hopefully holding all day, so at the briefing, it was decided to try and get four races in (Sundays forecast wasnt good!). Launching was across the softest sand weve ever had at Paignton, luckily, I had some superstar juniors to pull the trolleys around for me. They were left on the beach as the tide was still going out. As we sat in the sun, waiting for the racing to finish, we could feel the wind slowly dropping again and knew they wouldnt be long coming in. After theyd finished for the day, I had different kids pulling trolleys and reading sail numbers for me (my eyesight isnt what it was!). Tea that evening was one of Jaynes famous curries feeding 60+ people.

Sunday saw a few sailors leaving, but the wind was holding, and most were glad we were going to try and sail - the only problem, was that the tide was in! With Aiden and Ben catching boats, whilst Becky and the ever-youthful Charles handled the trolleys, my job was to wade out into the sea towing a boat with the sailor onboard, then push them towards the racecourse. We soon had a system going and all the sailors were away. Ben got towed out as after launching everyone had to go and sail his Laser (finishing top laser in the results). Whilst they were racing Ness sorted out the prizes (we had loads!) and I moved some Paignton sailors trolleys around to the harbour.

Prize giving was done as soon as possible after theyd all been sorted out, with prizes for each fleet (Blazes, Vareos etc) as well as an overall winner this was a K1 for the second year, we need more wind next year to topple their dominance.

A big thanks to the race team, which had some new faces in it this year always good to see. And a special mention for Nick, who, a few weeks ago was going to race his Blaze, and ended up being Race Officer and making the decisions that made this weekend so successful.