12 sailors braved the threat of storm Agnes to be greeted by a very gentle breeze blowing down the lake. By the time general greetings and pleasantries had been exchanged the wind had filled in from the Southeast and the general opinion was a B rig would be the sensible choice. A standard course using the full lake was set with the first leg towards the clubhouse end followed with a short spreader leg then down to the gate, and then a beat to the finish.
The B Rig was the perfect choice and sailing got underway on time, The wind was reasonably steady but with enough shifts to make it interesting and meant the skippers had to keep their wits about them. The sailing was extremely close and competitive throughout the fleet with 9 of the 12 helms finishing in the top 3 in at least 1 race. The rain arrived after race 5 and got heavy enough at the end of race 8 to call a halt for lunch.
The day turned out to be far better than any of the weather forecasts had predicted and was very enjoyable for those who chanced their arm.
Final positions are shown below but the top honours went to John Carlin (4 wins), James Douglas (3 wins,) and new member Tony Sedgewick (1 win). A special mention to Frans King who had his most competitive days racing to date
Finally a special thanks to Neil Westbrook who volunteered to be the Race Officer for the day
- John Carlin 8
- James Douglas 14
- Tony Sedgewick 21 (1 win)
- Alan Watkinson 21
- Clive Warren 22
- Dave Williams 25
- Frans King 29
- Andrew Potter 36
- Richard Walker 39
- John Beech 53
- Dave Howard 54 (1 x 5)
- Malcolm Harvey 54
Over lunch the rain stopped and the wind freshened slightly from the morning session to welcome the 4 die hard DF95 sailors, (John C, Frans, Malcolm and Clive). Informal racing took place over about 90 mins, no results were recorded but a great time was had by all four in one of the best winds we have seen in quite a while at Gautby Road.
