With summer back with us again it was a warm evening with a F3 from the SE when the nine boats rigged on the prom. For the first time this season the single-handers were joined by a two man boat for a Thursday evening with Ed and Chris venturing out in the Spitfire.
The race team set the usual windward leeward course and redefined the term ‘gate start’, setting a line the length of a typical farmer’s gate!
Preparing for race one
With a strong ebb tide the start proved busy as boats vied for position to cross the start line. Dave (Vareo) and Nick (Phantom) managed to pop out in front and everyone headed inshore out of the tide. After lap one these two had nearly a minutes lead on the fleet. Phil A (Contender) headed the pack which were all very close including Carl, sailing his Mini-sail for the first time on the sea. After lap two Nick had opened up a gap on Dave. Richard (Solution) had squeezed ahead of Phil A with Phil H (Phantom) leading the rest.
and then race two!
After the final lap Nick crossed the line a minute ahead of Dave, both Phil‘s had overtaken Richard and Tamsin (Laser Radial) had closed the gap on Richard. On corrected time Dave was first, Carl managed to stay close enough to the fleet to take second and Tamsin third.
someone turned the lights out !!!
Race two, still a strong tide but not the excitement of the ‘gate’ start, although it still proved tricky getting a clear channel crossing the line, with the pin end being hard fought. Nick led the fleet to the windward mark, Dave arrived second and managed to hit it and had to do a turn, Phil A happily passed Dave in the process with Phil H close behind. Tasmin also fell foul to the attraction of the windward mark letting Richard and Carl through.
a very pleasant evening sailing – it wasn’t as dark as it appears
On the final lap Phil A overtook Nick at the windward mark, only to lose the lead on the downwind leg to the line by just two seconds with Dave just ahead of Phil H and Richard leading the rest.
On corrected time Dave took the win, with Nick and Phil A finishing far enough ahead to claim second and third.
The surf had built a little on returning to shore making for an interesting ride back.
It’s the penultimate evening of the series next week, Dave is currently leading the series, just ahead of Richard B and Richard F.
Many thanks to Richard and Ed for volunteering to run the evenings racing and to Lorna for preparing the salad to go with the Lasagne and Quiche we had for ‘supper’.
Results are on the club site http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2023/2023Thursday.htm
The race team were busy taking photos which are on the club Flickr site