As this was a Wednesday in Bank Holiday and half-term week, entries were limited to only 7 sailors who enjoyed a good A suit breeze straight down the lake with occasional gusts later that were overpowering everyone both upwind and down. Early in the session though, we were wondering if A+ would have been a better choice as the breeze was a little light at times for a couple of races, with boats struggling to power through the chop that was being setup.
Racing got underway after Peter had moved a few marks around to give a decent windward/leeward course, although the start line was mostly port biased as the wind swung more to W after being WNW during setup.
Peter took today seemingly easily with eight wins from the ten races sailed, although that doesn’t really tell the whole tale as is often the case at Gautby Road. Windward mark roundings were often very tight with four boats in close contention going down onto the run. If you managed to get in a gust which others missed out on, then you could easily lose several places. For example Andrew led race one only to miss out on the downwind breeze and nearly ended up third. Paul was leading race 2, but then didn’t cover Peter on the way into the finish and got on the wrong side of a shift which dropped him into second place. Paul was however nearly always up there in the lead group and his persistence finally paid off in Race 6 when he achieved a race win. It was close between him and John C, who was consistent but never managed that elusive win. Charles had a storming first beat in race 9 to lead around the top mark and held onto this to the finish for the win, although he was chased hard by Richard all the way.
A great mornings racing which we self policed and recorded finishes apart from the final two races when Neil steps in to watch the line and record the finish – thanks Neil.
- Peter Baldwin 63 8pts 8 wins
- Paul Plested 54 21pts 1 win
- John Carlin 11 24pts
- Andrew Potter 194 25pts
- Charles Legg 21 34pts 1 win
- Sally Collings 829 40pts
- Richard Walker 39 44pts
