Great conditions at Gorleston for Act 6 of the Autumn series. The day started with sunshine and a warm F2 from the South and ended with overcast skies and a F3-4.
The day didn’t start too well for Phil when he realised he had forgotten the sail for his Contender so made do sailing the club Solution, despite the complaints of having to hike.
At the start of racing the upwind legs were aided by the flood tide. Team Ed shot ahead in the Spitfire followed by Curtis in his 700 and the 400’s with Dave & John just ahead after the first lap. Behind, the single handers were led by Steve in his Europe, just a few seconds ahead of the Laser Radials. With Team Ed lapping the entire fleet they got to sail and additional lap. Dave & John held their lead over the other 400’s to the finish and Steve extending his lead over the Lasers to just over 30 seconds. On corrected time Steve just beat Richard (Laser Radial), with Dave & John third.
By the start of race two the wind had increased to F3 with an increase in the sea state. Team Ed once again stormed ahead followed by a closely bunched RS fleet. After lap one Steve led the single handers just a few seconds ahead of Keith in his Laser Radial. Team Ed was on a mission and again lapped the entirely fleet. With the increase in sea state the off wind legs were providing some exciting surfing opportunities, particularly for the asymmetrics. With the faster boats completing extra laps the race team did another great job finishing everyone within a few minutes with Tom & Christine in the 505 finishing first after 42.20, which happened to be identical to their finishing time in race one! On corrected time the top three places were identical to race one.
During the racing the committee boat was joined by a visitor who spent some time watching the boats round the leeward gate!
The final race started at slack water. With both wind and sea state increasing slightly it was unsurprisingly to see a few capsizes. Richard & Robyn (RS400) led for a short while until overtaken by Team Ed. After the first lap the Spitfire was well ahead with Curtis heading the RS fleet. Steve once again led the single handers but with Phil, now getting to grips with the Solution only a few seconds behind. Team Ed couldn’t quite lap the entire fleet again but were close. At the line Richard & Robyn led the RS fleet, Steve leading the single handers and Phil holding off a final lap challenge from Richard in the Laser Radial. On corrected time Steve and Richard made it a 1,2 hat trick with Richard & Robyn taking third
Steve’s great form today now sees him lead the series by ten points and with only one more week to go looks hot favourite to take the series. However, the next five places are close so all depends on the final week. Many thanks to the race team for an excellent days sailing also acting as photographers for the day with over 80 pictures on the club Flickr site.