Only a few light zephyrs of breeze were apparent whilst boats were practising leading up to the 13:00 start. Unfortunately this included winds from the general direction of both East and West. Coming up to start time, the predominant wind was Easterly and so Peter and Dave agreed to start at the far end.
All was looking good during the countdown until 15 seconds before the start when….. the wind switched off and we started on a run. This direction remained for the whole race, making for an interesting time to sail the right course, with a windward gate and a leeward mark and spreader! The race was taken by John Brierley aided in part by Peter thinking there was a run to go before finishing on a beat! Alan picked up third close behind Peter.
By the time of the next start a decent westerly breeze had set in which had some very odd short shifts as a gust rolled down the course, but produced a good A rig sailing day. The sun was out but the breeze was cool leading to most sailors wearing two layers rather the expected single layer.
The day became mostly a shoot out between Peter and John Brierley, with Peter picking up five firsts and John taking four. They did not have it all their own way however with Paul Little taking two wins and a second place with Neil Westbrook a win and second. Although Alan didn’t pick up a race win during the afternoon, he did sail consistently with a second and a number of third places to take third overall. Neil’s win helped lower his overall score and place him in fourth ahead of John Carlin, who had a number of third places, but wasn’t as consistent as Neil and Alan, dropping him into fifth. Unfortunately after winning a couple of races, Paul Little didn’t finish two races and so had to count some lower places, narrowly dropping him down the overall positions. Ian Davies had placed well in the first session of six races, but missed the second session and dropped him out of the overall running.
Overall a great afternoon for sailing and a good turnout of eleven sailors, who in the main took it in turns to act as RO for eleven races, with the final race start watched over by Peter and kindly finished by Paul. Photos from Dave Williams (Race 1) and Peter (Race 3).
- Peter Baldwin 172 13pts
- John Brierley 84 16pts
- Alan Watkinson 23 36pts
- Neil Westbrook 03 39pts
- John Carlin 50 41pts
- Paul Little 14 44pts
- Dave Williams 33 51pts
- John Beech 288 60pts
- Martin Whittingham-Jones 77 68pts 2x4th
- Phyl Fanning 657 68pts 1x4th
- Neil Davies 133 73pts
