Weta UK

I always enjoy travelling in to Wales, and this trip was to take part in the annual Long Distance Dinghy Race Weekend at Bala Sailing Club.

With what can only be described as interesting forecasts for the weekend, with a mix of wind conditions and the occasional thunderstorm thrown into the mix this was going to be a great first visit to an event that had been on the radar for a few years.

The entry list was like reading the RYA PY list with a huge range of classes represented – GP14 to SB20, Laser Radial to F101 foiler….. and then there were two Wētā dinghies who travelled to sample what was on offer. Just to make things confusing for the locals both helms were called Steve – Steve T from Yorkshire & Steve H from Oxfordshire.

Saturday –

The course was to be windward leeward (basically a top mark so far up the lake you couldn’t see it from the club house) and a bottom mark set halfway across the lake between the club house and the village.

Race start was 1pm for an approximate race length of 3 hours, do as many laps as possible with average lap times corrected to PY to find the winner.

The start line was a crowded affair with 42 boats taking part and positioning the Wētā appropriately was going to be key. Steve T was somewhere in the mix but holding back a little just to stay safe. Meanwhile Steve H had mistakenly thought the hooter sounded a warning sound for the impending countdown, only to realise that was in fact the start of the three minutes, so his timing and positioning wasn’t great as he was stuck somewhere below the Pin end, so simply going for the line and clear air (if that’s possible in a fleet this size) was going to be the best option.

As it turns out, the conditions at the start were perfect for the Wētā and with the breeze around 15 knots and flat water Steve H found himself a nice lane to leeward and was flying along making up positions after the bad start.

The fleet quickly spread out across the lake with everyone trying to sail the best line to carry their first tack as far as possible up the lake.

However, this is lake sailing in a valley and there were some good/bad and down right ugly knocks to be found on the way to the first mark. Keeping your eyes out of the boat and watching what was going on ahead paid dividends if you acted promptly – and then other times it was simply a gamble to tack or not.

At the end of the first outward leg the two Wētā were holding their own and as they rounded the bouy it was time to unleash the screecher……

The first down wind blast had moments of ‘woohoo’ followed by moments of ‘where has the wind gone’ followed by more moments of ‘woohoo’!

Steve H was the first Wētā around the mark followed a minute or two later by Steve T.  About half way down the course Steve H looked out behind to see Steve T approximately 20 boat lengths behind but fully powered up and flying, he was on the move and was going considerably quicker than those around him, and it looked great! He soon overtook Steve H before falling into a hole and leaving the two Wētā rounding the bottom mark only a few boat lengths apart.

Over the next 2 laps positions changed based on where you were on the lake and whether you scored a header or a footer, but it was a whole lot of fun.

After completing 3 laps in a rapidly dying breeze and having sailed approximately 18-19 miles Steve H (19th) held off Steve T (28th) and positioned both Wētā somewhere midfleet on corrected time.

The day ended with an amazing BBQ and social in the club where we dutifully sampled some of the local bitter and watched some of the forecast thunderstorms rolling up the lake before heading back to the campsite.

Sunday –

What a glorious morning after a night of thunder/lightning and a whole lot of rain.

Unfortunately all the breeze had vanished and Bala Lake was like a mirror.

Would there be racing or not, and on top of that there were more electrical storms forecast for the area not long after lunch. This is a Race Officers worst nightmare – sailors wanting to race, little to no wind (and what wind there was it kept changing direction).

Race briefing was announced and we were told there would be a delay to the start and any racing would be shortened as they didn’t want a fleet of boats out on the lake when the next round of thunderstorms rolled in.

As if by magic, and with only a 15min delay the Sunday race got underway. The top mark had been moved and the course length was about a third as far as the day before. There was breeze but it was shifty and light meaning the beat to the top mark was a test. Once around the mark the screecher was again deployed and the aim was to carry it as far as possible, which was about half way down the course. At this point I discovered the lake was “tidal”! Some might beg to differ but as the wind completely died the now stationary boats spread across the lake certainly appeared to be going backwards. After 5-10 minutes the breeze filled in but had swung 150 degrees and made what was a good blast home into a tight fetch. And that was it – a one lap dash to finish with a toot.

Steve H finished Sunday’s race in 11th while Steve T decided not to race in favour of becoming James Bond and taking a bevvy of beauties out for a sail on his yacht before packing up for the trip home.

Final positions for the weekend –

Steve H, 15th

Steve T, 34th

Massive thanks to the Bala SC Race Officers for getting us racing despite testing conditions and all the volunteers in the kitchen/bar/rescue boats.

It was decided by both Steve’s that it should be in the diary again next year – we hope to see a few more Wētā there to enjoy this great Welsh event.

We stayed at the Pen-Y-Bont Campsite which is a five minute walk from the clubhouse and has to be one of the nicest campsites I’ve stayed at.

2023 Bala SC Long Distance Weekend results can be seen here.

By Steve Harvey

We represent windsports that were dreamt in New Zealand and now available worldwide – This is the UK home for the Wētā dinghy and Blokart, sailing on land.

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Blokart
Blokart sailing on land is almost identical to sailing on the water – it’s a bit quicker but someone coming from a sailing background can adapt extremely quickly and most of the rules from on the water apply for Blokart sailing/racing too, so the transition is almost seamless.

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Wētā
Wētā trimarans are another NZ design success. With strong fleets in countries around the world and a passionate group of owners here in the UK we are super excited to offer this dinghy alongside the Blokart. We’re realistic, it’s not for everyone but almost anyone who can sail a dinghy can really enjoy the Wētā due to the simple layout, the ability to sail it single handed, double handed or with the kids. It also sails like any other dinghy with the centreboard in place which means tacking is responsive and once you have unfurled the gennaker you certainly get that rush of sailing a performance craft.

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Get in touch with us if you’d like to try either option and hopefully you’ll be as addicted to sailing as we are.

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Fair winds all

Steve Harvey
AdrenawindSports

https://www.adrenawindsports.co.uk/

Paignton Sailng Club held it’s annual open event for single handers over the weekend of 20/21 May 2023. Commonly referred to as POSH (Paignton Open for Single Handers) this years event had two Wētā sailors join a multitude of other classes in this fantastic venue referred to as the English Riviera. This is how things went down –

Friday 19th – both sailors arrived late afternoon and proceeded to find a spot in the club boat park as we had been informed we would be launching from inside the harbour with a fleet of K1s. We needed to find enough space to rig our boats and it soon became apparent that if another couple of Wētā had been present things would have been very cosy on the hard standing. Neither of us had been to this venue before and after getting set up we headed off to find our accomodation for the weekend which was just over the road from what was to be the boat park for the other visitors who would be launching off the beach.

While we would have loved to have launched with the other fleets we discovered that the access to the beach would have been quite tricky for the Wētā. The ramp down from the road side and prominade was perfect for monohulls but it would have been a test for us to have got down there, especially on the Sunday when even the other fleets struggled due to the height of the water and no beach being available. More on this later.

Saturday –

We woke to a glorious day and from the bedroom window I could see the flags on the harbour wall flying straight out, and with a forecast 10-12knts gusting mid-high teens this was looking good. It was a leisurely start to the day as other out of towners arrived throughout the morning, before the competitor briefing was held at 11am in the clubhouse.

We had been assigned the third start behind the ‘Fire’ fleet who racing their own series of races over the weekend and the slow handicap fleet who were participating in POSH. The course for both days was to be a trapezoid course with either two of three windward legs depending on wind strength and prospective race length.

Race 1 –

Does it feel like the breeze is droppping? Yes. It was hard work getting the Wētā up to speed and trying to find a clear path through the fleet proved even trickier. Let’s just say I wrote that one off in the hope the breeze would build and make it at least possible to sit out on the floats.

Race 2 –

A better start and slightly clearer air but with the wind dropping it was a simply a job of keeping the bow down to keep some speed up to try and punch through the chop. I was struggling to find the balance of speed verses height and very quickly realised the angles I was sailing just weren’t effective. I could close the gaps on the reaching parts of the course only to loose any gains on the beats and downwind.

Race 3 –

The wind was now dropping further and everyone was drifting around the course.

Watching the monohulls roll tacking their way up the course was a bit demoralising but i still managed to gain a few places on the earlier two races so I simply counted that as a gain to build on tomorrow. The conditions were definitely not as forecast and the return to shore had me wishing for a paddle (which I had left at home).

Saturday ended in the clubhouse with a fantastic curry and desert before we filtered off to rest for next days racing.

Sunday –

More breeze was forecast and as we were rigging for an earlier start this certainly appeared to be the case with what felt like a solid 10-15knots. This was looking good.

However,with an earlier start expected and increased wind and waves, those launching from the beach found no beach to be had and they were not keen to try and launch directly from a concrete ramp on what was almost a Lee shoreline. This lead to a postponement by the race officer until the beach crew could start getting boats in the water. Eventually all boats from the harbour and beach got word it was all go. With the breeze coming straight into the harbour the K1s and ourselves were kindly towed beyond the entrance before being released to sail out to the course in choppier conditions than Saturday. The increased breeze meant the Wētā felt much better than the day before and was popping nicely off the top of some small swells and the leeward float sending up nice amounts of spray. Would the delay in launching be a good thing or would we be lamenting the delay and have the wind drop like the day before?

Race 4 –

On the beats the Wētā managed to be further up the fleet as we could point higher than previous races which meant we could be more competitive upwind than yesterday. Once at the top of the course we could unfurl the gennaker and set off blasting across the reaching legs making up places as we went. While positioned out on the floats fully powered up you could hear the occasional comment made from others pleased to see the Wētā finally doing what it does best.

On the windward legs with the increased breeze I found I could point as high as the Hadron2 I had gained on and there certainly appeared to a good amount of ground to be made up by staying on the left side of the course upwind, but that meant picking the approach to the top mark would be crucial.

Once again, getting around the top mark cleanly and trying to work a clear lane down wind before attacking the final reaching legs to the finish was the aim, and Patrick Lyon sailing Trident seemed to have this dialled and was seen to sail well down to leeward picking off places as he went.

Race 5 –

The chop had peaked and the wind had dropped to levels only marginally better than Saturday. It was still enough to get the foils working which meant pointing was more in line with what was to be expected. However, that wind was definitely starting to drop.

Race 6 –

Where’s the wind gone? Back to light wind tactics and just keeping the boat moving was the sole focus. I was pleased to finally reach the finish but it was tight between a small number of boats all struggling to drift across the line and with the multiple tacks all within the final 10-12 boat lengths it really was anyones guess who could position themselves correctly to get across without impeding anyone else.

And that was POSH2023.Did I wish there was more breeze, you bet! Did I enjoy the hospitality of Paignton SC, absolutely! Would I recommend you to go if you haven’t been, do it!

Let’s hope POSH2024 has a few more Wētā in attendance (I’ve already warned them we may need more boat park space). Pencil in the first or second weekend in May 2024 and we’ll see you there.

Finally a huge thank you to Paignton SC for putting on the event, all the helpers from registration to beach crew, and not forgetting those who arranged and served the Saturday evening meal. Stirling effort to all.

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By Steve Harvey