shallow water (bank)

Today race at the Lympstone lake mark was set in very shallow  water and the merlin fleet rudders  were hitting the bottom very hard and as a result the rudders were coming up making sailing difficult especially with spinnakers up, there was almost a serious collision between Mark Elkington and myself today .I had a conversation with John Allen after todays race about depth gauge sticks which he informed me are always in the  rescue boats. So please can Race offices ask rescue boat crews for depth of water checks. 












 

I agree.  The shallow water on the gybe mark did impact the racing yesterday and I believe there were a couple of near misses due to boats struggling to maintain control with their rudders partially up.  

I think OODs / safety boat crews should check the water depth as a matter of course (no pun intended!) whenever laying a mark at Bank or Lympstone Lake. 

Given we were racing close to HW with a 2.9m tide the extent of the shallows was a bit of a surprise to me.  Has the channel changed over the winter?.  Definitely  something for OODs to consider when setting courses.  Perhaps look for the low tide courses on raceManager when dealing with HW levels lower than 3.0m.
Mark

Dear All, thank you for posting your recommendations concerning depth of water when laying race marks .

I am only sorry that you experienced these issues during the race rounding the bank mark but that I am relived collisions where avoided !

I will ensure they are highlighted at the the next Sailing Committee for further debate and consideration.

I think the depths are checked if there is a concern but that the river is ever evolving and like Mark, I was also surprised it was so shallow there too .

We will certainly endeavour to avoid similar problems with navigating race marks .

Paul .