GP14 Nationals at Tenby - Day 5

Thursday 7 August

The forecast for Thursday is 15 Knots, gusting 20 Knots. That’s near the top of our ability.

So should we go out today?

It was a difficult call. I wanted to go out on a “high”. It’s been a great holiday. But I don’t want to spoil it.  So I really really preferred to call it “done”.

So we arranged to check out of our B&B and de-rig the boat that morning. 

As we were doing so, the visibility out to sea was very hazy, and we saw an “AP over one” (one hour delay to the start). Later on, this became a two hour delay. And in the end, all racing was cancelled for the day.

Meanwhile, with rain down the backs of our necks, we had taken 13941 to bits ready for transport, and were on our way back home.

Mid-afternoon, the organisers released their “Notice number 5” to competitors:

“Notice to competitors No. 5. 7/8/25
I’m sorry that we could not race today. Conditions in the race area were not safe, with large waves rolling at different angles , heights and lengths. The sea state was kicked up overnight, and even if the wind moderated as per the forecast, the sea state would not flatten off until late afternoon. The safety team doubted that they would be able effectively to assist boats that required it. On Tuesday in similar wind, but better sea state they assisted 18 boats. The visibility was coming and going, most of the time we could not see Tenby at all.
Rather than keep you all hanging around in case we could run a race in the late afternoon - and there was no guarantee that this would be possible- we decided that postponing for the day was the best option.
The schedule is now changed for Friday as follows:
Three races for all fleets, with first warning signal at 1057. Target time is reduced to 40-45
mins. We may have to do more W flag finishing than we have so far to facilitate turning round races quickly.
The latest time for a warning signal for the first class to start is changed to 1500.”

So leaving early had not penalised us. 

It had been a great event for us:

- four sea races, if you include the “practice race”

- tried out the high winds on Tuesday

- learnt a lot

- gained a bit of confidence 

So it’s back to the Welsh Harp.

Will we do other “Open” Events? Who knows?

Happy Sailing !