Drizzle was definitely in the air when folks started arriving for the second TT event of the weekend, but there was the promise, or at least hope, for more breeze and clearer skies as the day progressed. With the wind, what there was of it, was from a few points west of North, which meant a course the full length of the lake could be used, albeit it with a starboard biased beat to the windward mark. The leeward gate was moved closer to the clubhouse shore to make the most of the wind direction.
As luck would have it the drizzle had dissipated when the ten boat fleet made a clean start bang on 9:30. As with the Saturday event the usual suspects of Tobias Laux and Alan Bennett were out of the blocks quickly, this time joined by Graham Elliott who had entered for the day. Paul Middleton was also in the mix from the off and these four kept trading places, with Tobias eventually taking the win followed by Graham and then Paul who edged out Alan B.
After the first race it became clear that tacking over to the far bank too early could cost you dearly and most played it safe by staying on the left of the course upwind in the next few races at least. Tobias was clearly determined to make amends for just missing out on winning on the Saturday by winning the next two races, although Alan B was never far behind banking two 2nds followed by a win in race 4 in the steadier breeze. Chris Elliott was also showing some good boat speed nudging his brother, Graham, down to 4th in the second race, followed by another 3rd place in race four. Alan Watkinson, after a slow start with some minor gremlins with his boat set up sailed well in the third race to pick up a 4th place.
After a short coffee and cake pit stop nine of the ten boats got away cleanly in the lake wide breeze. Unfortunately Chris Elliott was a tad too early at the off and he struggled to get back in touch with the fleet that was off at pace up the lake. Tobias, Alan B and Graham again hogged the top spots, but not far behind was young George Bennett who made claim to 4th spot at the top mark and, despite constant pressure from Vernon Appleton, sailed a great race to cross the line holding that position.
In the next three races Alan B scored two 1sts followed by a 2nd and he was perhaps a little hard done to when leading he sailed into a dead patch at the final leeward gate. Tobias managed to sail up from behind and around him taking the win on the line. John Berry had his best spell of the day in both races six and seven with a 4th in each race.
In race nine the wind had started to drop and Tobias followed by Paul M got away. Paul almost made it to the finish first, but was pipped by a quicker tacking Tobias just a few boat lengths from the line. Still a good result to go with 3rd Paul got in race nine. Alan W also had his best race so far picking up the 3rd spot.
After a lunch break the helms were greeted with an almost mirror like lake with just the odd zephyr on the water. Despite this the fleet got away without incident and by the first mark Alan W, John B, Bob Conner and Paul were in a leading group ahead of the usual front runners. Alan B managed to claw his way back in to contention, but Alan W took a well deserved win followed by Paul taking another 2nd in what was a good spell of races for him. Alan B took 3rd followed by Bob in 4th.
In race eleven Graham got back in the groove and lead virtually from start to finish, with Tobias taking 2nd followed by Alan B. Chris managed to keep his boat gliding well in the fickle breeze to take 4th with George picking up another good result with a 5th.
With race eleven taking around thirty minutes and no prospect of any breeze filling in, at 2:40 the Race Officer pulled plug on events much to the relief of the competitors. After the numbers were crunched it was a well deserved win for Tobias Laux on 13 points, with Alan Bennett having to settle for second this time with 17 points. Graham Elliott came in third with 24 points followed by Paul Middleton who had had a great spell late on finishing fourth overall with 36 points.Thanks must go to Paul and Sharon Plested, supported by Neil Westbooke for running the racing in what were testing conditions. Thanks also go to Joss Watkinson and Christine Westbrooke for keeping both competitors and volunteers fed and watered all day. Pictures courtesy of Paul Plested.
