Apart from a chill in the S-SSE breeze everything else was just about perfect for the Start of Season racing. Blue skies all day, slick race team, F2-4 winds and a small swell to make the off-wind legs fun.
After a rather casual boat rigging session on the beach, racing got underway a few minutes late! The race team set a good sized Windward–Leeward course with the wind F2-3. The beat was assisted by the last remains of the flood tide. There was some close racing, particularly mid fleet with Richard & Ed, in their newly acquired RS400, Nick C (Phantom) and Phil & Lorna (RS400), separated by just six seconds after lap one. Dave & John (RS400) took line honours, with Nick F, sailing his lovely new D-One in second. However, Steve, sailing his pocket-rocket Europe took the race win on corrected time with Phil A, sailing his Contender and powering his way up the beats taking fourth place.
The wind increased a tad and edged a little to the East for race two. The tide was slack for the start of the race but just turning by the time the race finished. A couple of crews decided to test the water during the race…… think the opinion was it’s still very cold ! The increased wind made for some great off-wind legs for the asymmetrics. Dave & John took line honours, with Nick F close behind. On corrected time Steve just pipped Nick for second, with Phil taking another fourth place.
The final race of the day was a two lap sprint, which suited everyone as now the ebb tide was flowing, the wind now F3-4 and legs were aching! Dave & John were having a close battle for the lead with Nick F until a mis-timed spinny drop slowed Nick down. Steve was expertly working the downwind legs and took another race win, Dave & John second, with Richard & Ed just pipping David (Solution) for third.
It was a good day for Steve who just beat Dave & John to win the Start of Season trophy.
Many thanks to the race team for a great start to the season, we were certainly lucky with the weather. The race team took several pictures which are now on the club Flickr site. Apologies for the photo quality, water on the lens !
By the time we had the boats back up in the dinghy park there were plenty of tired bodies. Once the boats were de-rigged and packed we enjoyed lunch on the prom, Chef Brown’s tasty pies certainly went down a treat.
Full results – http://www.gygsc.org.uk/Results/2022/2022SOS.htm
Pictures on Flickr – https://www.flickr.com/photos/gygsc/albums
