PSC were represented by VG OFFSHORE and BLUE ANGEL
VG Offshore skippered by vice Commodore Rama with Gerhard, Yasid , Rear Commodore
Jega and 2 sons,potential new member Ibrahim as crew joined on the Sunday by Charles
Blue Angel skippered by Commodore Jeremy with Martin C , Harro , Martin V, James and
Heppy plus Simon on Sunday as crew regatta
Both boats in superb trim newly antifouled ,regatta organisation not great the 10 boat fleet
was split in to 2 classes , announced after BA had gone out to practice , understand done
by Malcolm Elliott in absentia by rating , BA as the lowest rated was placed in class 2 , VG
Offshore with a very kind 0, 919 also , BA with an IRC low rating is a racing boat and it is
unfair on other competitors but put her in with genuine cruisers , RSYC persist in doing this ,
to me ( as X RSYC Sailing Secretary ) it is best to separate the racing and cruising boats ,
Bobby Botok also in the cruising class is wrong l
Both PSC Boats got good starts but were confronted by a very large container ship with the
delightful name of SWANSEA although registered in Monrovia , we all had to sail along
side her until we could head up behind , Ba lost out in this to Jeff Harris J boat … BA was
fortunate to have Martin C with his I Pad and Navionics to navigate allowing the skipper to
concentrate on boat speed , BA headed to the ship berths , long single tack whilst Nijinsky
the J boat with the highest handicap tacked back , great sailing to windward down tide with
a nice 12-15 knot breeze , BA close to one Platu with Jeff Harris drawing away , VG at the
front of the pack in close company with Bobbi Botock ( X Cabaret 5)
BA was happily sailing the class one course when we heard Rama on the VHF saying that a
buoy not on the class 1 course was the one to be rounded VG did just that and held on to
finish and with that handicap little question she would win and she did,, but to win you have
to sail well and she did
BA continued with class 1 mainly because it was such super sailing and perfect for the boat
we had a regular 8 knots speed over the ground and touched 10 .
Approaching the final buoy before Angsa Island we had to tack across the tide neither of
the boats ahead made it without tacking again but as veterans of the dreaded Selat mark BA
was well up and in the end we could bear away ,
Nice run broad reach back under spinnaker ( wrong way round showing Old Poultney but
who cares ) we finished about 16.45 , with the same 2 boats ahead the Platu not far but the
J a long way
Not only had we sailed the wrong course but we had not signed on ( which would have
advised us we were in class 2 ) after a lot of discussions we were allocated a handicap of
0,924 instead of 0. 879 even at that we beat everything except the J , strongly suspect the
handicap was to ensure we did not win a class we were not entered for , we have no
problem , we just want to sail , anyway after a few beers who cares , sadly the result sheet
did not show the finishing or elapsed times , half the fun is seeing how we all were
Sunday started with torrential rain which finally stopped about 1200 and we all proceeded
out to the starting area , nice sailing but then the wind died and it did not return until 4pm
just after racing had been abandoned for the day , Race Officer Mun who had succeeded in
confusing both PSC skippers with a 6 minute starting sequence on the Saturday, when BA
made a perfect but lonely start on 5 minutes set a very short course to a buoy off the
shipyard to Tail and home but we were not able to cross the line
A nice cold beer and a bbq arranged by RSYC was nice , Sailing Sec Khairy graciously
welcomed and thanked PSC for the support , AND RAMA COLLECTED a nice little trophy for
his victory , BA was placed second in Class 1
Sad no competition on the short courses but a nice weekend , we will make a point of
inviting them for our rearranged One Fathom Bank Race now scheduled for Saturday 20 th
November and as the sta lok to i fix Leopad Dream s forestay as well as the missing screw
for the jib furler arrived on Friday we will have her ready to sail as well
Jeremy Camps
Commodore
PSC
28/10/21
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