This weekend held some of my best finishes in an event and some of my most frustrating moments to match. But all in all a fantastic weekend.

DAY 1

The day started very hot, dragging myself out of bed was an effort as it had been a very hot and sticky night and one which was a struggle to sleep in, then to find out that I had missed the fantastic lightning show that was apparently awesome I suddenly felt cheated, still onwards and upwards as they say. By 9am I had shoved in a quick breakfast and decided that my 11m Severne Reflex 5 and my recently purchased Starboard HWR courtesy of Owen Gibson would be ideal for today. Racing started at around the 11.30 mark, however Maurits and I decided to go out together and tune up for about an hour before racing started. Maurits is our Dutch contingent and was over here to do the North Sea Cup Series, having never met before it was great to meet someone of my own age with the same passion for Formula, we hit it off straight away and I look forward to seeing him again in the near future.

Onto the first race, I had a fantastic start both Maurits and I started on port and we both got a monster lift off the start line, although he had a slight advantage on board speed I got an unbelievable angle due to my new board and the width of it’s tail in comparison with my LWR. Unfortunately we lost this lead due to an early tack which landed us in front of the rest of the fleet but nowhere near as far in front as we could have achieved. I rounded the first mark in the top two places but could feel Maurits breathing down my neck as he was incredibly fast on the downwind leg. I Gybed incredible early again and fell victim to an unfortunate wind shift and had to throw in another two gybes which unfortunately cost me another three places, after I round the downwind buoy I was in the top five and tacked slightly earlier than the others which gave me another huge lift and would you believe it put me into 2nd place behind Chris Bond, we rounded the windward buoy with quite a lead from 3rd place racer Dave Coles but I tried to pull the lead further ahead as he is a beast downwind and this is where I made a rookie mistake, I thought I had to go through the leeward gate before the finish which I didn’t this opened the door for Dave to overtake within the last 15 metres leaving me in 3rd place, I’d say I was unhappy and I should have been but believe me I was happy having never managed this position between these two experienced old timers, ever…!! first of many I hope. Now it was very hot, thankfully mum was sat on the boat with Ali Masters so water was at hand and after taking in some much needed fluid I headed back to the start for the next race.

Second race, again I started on Port but this time I made this choice alone, to late to consider right or wrong, I thought right and I’d stick with it. The start was close, in fact very close but I made it out, Just…!! I thought I could re-create the angle I got in the first race, however the others headed towards the beach and got a huge lift leaving me to fight my way back up the pack. I eventually got in the mix with Nick Icke, Bob Ingram, Tim Gibson and Owen Gibson, no relation… after switching places due to wind shifts and other minor things I managed to finish the second race in 6th place managing to beat Nick, Bob and Owen but letting Tim get the better of me. Dave Coles won with Jamie Ingram coming in 2nd. Maurits came 4th. After this race we headed in for much needed re-fuelling.

After lunch the wind had shifted even more which made racing quite a challenge. Like every other race so far I started on port only to find the rest of fleet where there with me. This time my start was not as good and I came out around the 5th place mark, but this time I sailed a significant way out to sea where the rest of the fleet had tacked away and had zig zagged up to the windward buoy giving them an edge on me as they we’re closer to the buoy at that time, however after some serious work I managed to get to the windward buoy with 2 less tacks than the rest of the fleet so I was back in the mix just behind Bob Ingram. The rest of the race was a pretty uneventful and I came in behind Bob Ingram but in front of Chris Bond and Tim Gibson, again much to my surprise and pleasure, not so much to theirs I’d guess.

Race 4, the last race of the day, this race was a little like a comedy act… My start was pretty good I was with the front of the pack as we crossed the start line, but I missed the upwind buoy on my first attempt and had to tack away and try again, this was due to the tide pulling down the course area, I cut my mark rounding quite close and was punished as my fin latched onto the marker rope stopping my board and sail dead but I carried on without them, well I did need a cool down it was hot after all. After recovering from this I saw Bob go through the leeward gate and I shot off after him and managed to gain the water back and was about 25 metres behind him when I had the biggest lift I’d had the whole day and managed to overtake Bob and even catch up to one Nick Icke.. this is where things went completely down hill for the rest of the fleet and if I’d have put my GoPro on as my mum suggested I would have caught it all on camera, but hey I didn’t so I missed it. Due to the tide Chris, Tim, Bob and Nick tried to round the windward buoy and missed and all of them had to re-try several times to get round and as they we’re all trying to make their way round looking extremely funny I managed to overlay the mark and make up four places in about 10 seconds, as I passed all I could hear was Chris Bond shouting in despair, I had to laugh, and the look on their faces as I sailed on by was a classic. I thought just for a brief moment that I was in for a top three place, with Maurits taking first but it was thwarted by one Tim Gibson who punished me for Gybing to late, Dave Coles bagged 2nd and I eventually got 4th. Chris, Bob and Nick managed eventually to get themselves off the marker and finished the race… End of day one and all in all a very good day it was.

DAY 2

Sunday morning, what a difference a day makes, much cooler with grey skies and rain and to add insult to injury no wind. I didn’t attempt to get my kit out, it just didn’t seem worth it at least until some wind showed itself, it did look like the horrid weather was set in for the day..Sitting around is boring, I wandered around with some of the other sailors and just waited..generally achieving a whole lot of nothing, the sailing club was doing it’s best but no sun, no wind and rain makes for a rough day. Then as my mother had predicted, that’s twice she’s made a good call this weekend, it stopped raining just as she said around the 1.30pm mark and out came the sun.. Techno’s on the water doing there thing but still not enough for Formula, then would you cotton wool it, it came through and at 3.10pm Sue’s voice came over the speaker ‘just a heads up to the formula fleet, your flag will be going up in 5 mins, winds coming though at 10 knots’, would you believe it, I was down the other end of the promenade, running with my mother paid off.. I legged it as fast as I could and got back to the trailer to the welcome sight of both my parents grabbing all my kit out of it and laying it out ready to rig, neither of them ever rig for me so that’s as far as my help goes but it was a great start. Pulling together the same rig as yesterday I managed to get my kit and myself on the water within 15 mins, thanks to my helpers. The race itself was not one of my better performances over the weekend, I almost missed the start line and had to pump to make it through and over the line, as did Owen who stayed on the line for around 15 mins and then got over it. Maurits, James Ingram and I started on port and Jamie got well ahead, Maurits and I we’re neck and neck, he had more speed but I had a better angle, we tacked expecting to make the buoy in one tack but realised that the old pier, or what’s left of it was somewhat in the way so we had to make a quick detour and that ruined my strategy but luckily the wind held strong and I managed to round the buoy unlike Tim Gibson who stayed there for a while obviously enjoying the scenery. With no one else in sight I tried to sail my own race but made the same mistake as in a previous race, this time the wind didn’t hold through and I spent several minutes trying to make the buoy, this is where Tim sailed over the top of the pier leaving himself enough room to easily make the buoy, obviously he had taken notes from race 4..!! I sailed the last bit of the course after eventually making my way round and finished in 5th Place, not too bad.

My overall position this weekend was 4th, 2nd National and 2nd Youth, Maurits taking both 1st place in National and Youth and well deserved.

What can I say about this weekend as a whole, well I am dead chuffed with my results, my new board is fantastic and I feel like I can continue to not only to improve but also feel more confident about some of my own decisions as I have done over this weekend, some very good ones and some not as good but overall I’m very happy. My Severne sails are absolutely awesome, a dream to sail, brilliant to rig and just never let me down. A huge thanks to Severne/Juiceboardsports for all their help, advice and continuing support. Next event is Weymouth, I know what I need to do, bit more on the tactical side and put in a few more hours on the water but I’m hoping that I’m getting there.

James Battye

GBR-939.