SAMM RACING HIT BY PROBLEMS
The Autumn Series races for SAMM has not gone well so far.
The first race day was September 8th but, after trying to start, had to be abandoned due to a children’s fun day at taking place at CTD, which we were not told about. We then had the terrible Gota Fria the following weekend and were not able to race for the next 3 weeks as the members were helping with the clear-up and due to the poor state of the water in the Mar Menor.
On Sunday October 6th the forecast looked good so racing was to go ahead but, when everybody arrived at CTD at 10am the Mar Menor was shrouded in thick fog and there was no wind at all.
At 12.30 a breath of wind, 2.5 knots from the East, cleared the fog and the first race started with six boats coming to the line. The five dinghies got away well but the much heavier Sailfish 18 day boat “Sirocco” struggled as she needs at least 5 knots of wind to get her going well and crossed the start 3 minutes late.
The wind gradually increased to 5 knots and there was some close racing between the Laser 2000, the Omega and Laser Standard but then the wind died again causing problems and the Omega hit two marks which forced penalty turns and put her out of contention.
The dinghies were lapping at between 13 and 15 minutes but poor “Sirocco” took 40 minutes to complete one lap and retired.
The average lap result times on handicap were very close. 1st Laser 2000 in 694 secs, 2nd the Omega in 697 secs, 3rd Gamba 729 secs, 4th Laser Standard 735 secs, 5th Laser Radial 742 secs.