It was the last of the official Thursday evening sailing and the weather was perfect, a warm F3 from the south to start, easing to a F2 at the end of the evening.
The race team set a great line and course which provided some close racing for the nine boats.
At the start of race one there was the last of the ebb tide flowing tempting most of the fleet to head inshore on the beat. After the first lap four seconds separated the first three boats led by Richard in his RS300. Close behind was Curtis in his RS700 and Phil and Lorna in their RS400. During the next lap Richard and Ed (Team Brown RS400) closed the gap on Phil and Lorna with the latter holding on to the line. Behind, Steve (Europe) and Dave (Laser) were enjoying a close race with Steve ahead at the windward mark and sailing like he had another party he needed to get to ! Richard finished well clear of the next boat but the ‘slower’ single handers were close enough behind to grab the podium places on corrected time with Steve first, Dave second and Dan, ‘guesting’ in the club Laser Radial third.
There was no visible tide at the start of race two. A few boats ventured further offshore on the beat but there did not appear any advantage although the sea was smoother inshore. Richard managed to pull clear on lap one followed by Team ‘Commodore’ and Dave, with Team Brown suffering a knotted spinny halyard delaying their drop somewhat. On the final lap both Richard and Dave opted to go offshore which appeared to pay off. It was another 1,2,3 for the ‘slow’ boats with Dave winning on corrected time closely followed by Steve and Dan
Many thanks to the race team of Richard and Max for an excellent evening. Although it was the last official Thursday Evening racing, boo!!, the unofficial Thursday Finale series starts next week, hooray!, weather and light conditions permitting!