"Diary Of A Tactician – Part 3"
- Philip Crebbin.

After skippering Michael White’s 11.3 On A High throughout the 2001 season, often having I-Site as our no.1 competitor, I was delighted to have the opportunity to sail with Robbie Cameron-Davies, Dave Lenz and the I-Site team as tactician at the Dartmouth Regatta. Before Dartmouth, I-Site had just finished second at the Brixham regatta, beaten overall only by one small boat in light, fluky winds, and had followed this with an emphatic win in IRC Class 1 and IRC overall (for the Addison Gold Cup), as well as the dual scored IRM class, at the Torbay regatta. Hi Expectations, alias David Pinner’s Cracker, under charter to John Yandell, Phil Harrison and their young crew, also did well to come second overall in IRC Class 1 and IRM at Torbay, a great result for their first time sailing an 11.3. Anthony Richards’s Minnie The Moocher was also there and recorded several good results.

The Dartmouth Regatta had a strong IRC Class 1 fleet, including the three 11.3s, a Farr 395 Great Escape, chartered by local Rennie Miller with Peter Morton guesting, the previous year’s winner Fandango, a Beneteau 40.7, plus two Corby designs, the 36 Mustang Sally and the 35 Highland Spirit, and several competitive IMX 40s, Prima 38s and HOD 35s (including Peter Bruce’s Owl).

With the wind coming from the Southwest to Northwest quadrant throughout the regatta, it was offshore and so very shifty and variable in strength, which was then exaggerated by black clouds occasionally causing more extreme and long lasting wind speed and direction changes. However, the racing was mainly across the tide and so tidal gradient considerations were not important. This made for an enjoyable change from normal Solent sailing conditions as wind shifts and bands were the dominant tactical considerations.

There was a delay to the first race with the wind backing from 260 – 270 to 230 – 240, causing the line and the course to be re-laid. The wind was left favoured at the start, but there was more strength in the middle and on the right and so those that tacked early did better. I-Site led at the first mark closely followed by Hi Expectations and then Great Escape. I-Site soon stretched away on the windward-leeward course, but nothing was certain with a number of violent wind strength and direction changes that had to be coped with. The wind eased down at the finish and I-Site finished over 6 minutes ahead of Hi Expectations in second over the line, followed by Great Escape and Minnie The Moocher. On corrected time, I-Site won by over 2 minutes from Fandango, followed by Highland Spirit, Great Escape, Mustang Sally and then the first Prima, Bare Knuckles and the first HOD, Hazard Chase. Hi Expectations corrected out in 10th place with Minnie 12th.

The second race was another windward-leeward with similar wind changes to the first. I-Site led comfortably at the first mark, but a major change on the first run turned it into a port tack broad reach favouring the boats who had gybed early. Great Escape got ahead of the other 11.3s and closed right up on I-Site. With no course changes catered for, it remained an offset course which allowed Great Escape to use her asymmetric to good effect. I-Site finished 4_ minutes ahead on the water, but Great Escape won on corrected time by half a minute. Third was Highland Spirit, over 2 minutes behind I-Site, followed by the IMX 40 Exabyte, and then Bare Knuckles and Hazard Chase. Minnie was 10th after finishing second on the water, with Hi Expectations 14th.

The third race was a coastal course, with two of the marks right in on the shore. This made life very interesting with the offshore breeze, which was lighter than on the previous days. The battle developed again between I-Site and Great Escape, with the latter picking the best course on the third leg to the first inshore mark in patchy lines of wind, thereby closing right up to I-Site in the lead. By the next inshore mark I-Site was saving her time, but the last run to the finish saw the wind increase dramatically to 18 – 20kts and Great Escape would have saved her time on I-Site by a minute or so, and probably one or two other boats would have done too. However, this was academic as I-Site did not receive a gun as she was OCS. Hi Expectations got the gun just in front of Great Escape, but Great Escape won on corrected time by 40 seconds from Fandango, followed closely by the Sigma 400, Corwynt Cymru, the HODs Owl and Hazard Chase and then the Corby boats, Mustang Sally and Highland Spirit. Hi Expectations was 14th with Minnie 16th.

I-Site’s OCS meant that the situation was very tight for the last race. I-Site had 1,2,27 while Great Escape had 4,1,1 and Fandango had 2,8,2. The only safe position was for I-Site to win. Then even if Great Escape was second, I-Site would win overall on the tie break of the last race (as counting firsts, seconds etc would not have broken the tie). I-Site could be 2nd if Great Escape was lower than third, but as long as Fandango did not win, as then Fandango would win overall on the last race tie break.

A trapezoid course was set, which turned out to be a windward leg followed by a genoa reach, a run and then a spinnaker reach. The wind was still very patchy and shifty, and mainly shifted to the left of the course direction. It built to 20kts for the last windward leg to the finish. Hi Expectations got the last shift right on the first leg to lead I-Site at the first mark, but I-Site got ahead on the first run. Great Escape got stuck in the pack behind and never broke through. The battle was whether I-Site could win as otherwise Fandango looked best placed once she had got past Mustang Sally. The extra breeze at the end helped the 11.3s increase their lead and I-Site finished a minute ahead of Hi Expectations and Minnie who crossed the line together, only for Hi Expectations not to be counted as she was OCS. This prevented a Race 1 Ker 11.3 1,2,3 as I-Site and Minnie took first and second places on corrected time. Fandango was third followed by Highland Spirit, Hazard Chase and Exabyte. Great Escape, fourth across the line over 11 minutes after I-Site, was only 14th on corrected time, but still finished second overall after discard, two points behind I-Site and one ahead of Fandango. Highland Spirit was fourth overall.

Apart from winning IRC Class 1, I-Site won the overall IRC trophy for Classes 1, 2 and 3 combined, as she had done at Torbay, and was also part of the winning team (for teams consisting of one boat each from IRC Classes 1, 2 and 3). Minnie The Moocher finished 8th overall, with Hi Expectations 17th after losing her best result because of being OCS in the last race.

The 11.3s attracted a lot of attention at the West country regattas, especially I-Site’s stunning performance, and there was also a lot of interest in the new Race 1 Ker 9.8. There will hopefully be several of each competing there in 2002.