A warm sunny start to the day and it was great to be back on the water after last week’s ‘surfing’ conditions. With LW at 14.00 all racing would be in the ebb tide. In full flow in race one but gradually eased with little tide by the end of racing.
F2 wind, gusting F3 from the SW to begin but shifting to WSW at times, lots of shifts throughout the day providing testing conditions which saw many gains and losses.
Lovely sunny start to the day although it did cloud over by the time we returned to shore.
Race One – Ed, sailing his A-Class soon led the fleet opening up a big lead, in fact after two laps he started lapping the fleet. Things were a bit closer for the rest of the fleet with Dave & John (RS400) leading after lap one, just ahead of Phantom Nick and Contender Phil. On the second beat Dave & John hooked onto a couple of good lifts opening up a three minute plus lead which they extended on lap three. After lap two Phil led Nick by over a minute, only to fall victim of the shifts on the final lap with Nick crossing the line two minutes ahead.
Pre-start milling and ‘we’re off’.
Race two – the wind eased during the race and at times nearer a F1, but still just as shifty, perhaps more so. Ed again did another horizon job and proceeded to lap half the fleet. There were many place changes on the first beat, with some big gains and losses. Phil played the shifts well and led after lap one, two seconds ahead of Dave & John, with Nick just ahead of Phil & Lorna and James. The second beat wasn’t so kind to Phil with both Dave & John and Nick sneaking past. Positions remained unchanged on the final lap.
Race three. Let’s just say Ed had another lonely race out in front. By his stage most were working the left hand side of the beat where the wind appeared to be more favourable. Dave & John held a small lead over a tightly packed fleet after lap one, with eight seconds separating the main pack led by OK James. After three laps Phil had crept ahead of James, crossing the line nearly two minutes ahead.
Fast ‘Eddy’ enjoying the cat friendly conditions.
On corrected time Dave & John had a comfortable win in race one with James second. James then won the next two races, beating Nick by under a minute in race two and a comfortable win over Dave & John in the final race.
Many thanks to Darell and Curtis who volunteered at late notice to assist Richard on line duty. Between them we enjoyed a good day on the water with shifty, testing conditions.
Full results are on the club web site
Dave & John and James, todays race winners