The recent problem with algae had totally gone with the bottom of the lake quite visible, however the same could unfortunately also be said for the wind. The very nice breeze from yesterday, blowing almost straight down the lake was replaced by a mainly southerly breeze blowing from the clubhouse. This led to some very tricky wind over the entire lake. Two boats, less than two meters apart, and one could have a nice breeze and the other could stay still, add to this the swirling nature of the wind, sail trim was all important to make the most of the wind with beats changing to runs and shifts of 90 degrees common place.
Eleven skippers turned up to participate but Alan Watkinson had a reaction to his Flu / Covid jabs so volunteered to do RO duties for the morning. This was very fortunate for our Commodore Dave, who having taken his sails home to help rig his new hull unfortunately them there, so he was able to borrow Alan’s A rig.
As the wind was particularly bad at the clubhouse end, Alan chose to use the ‘club end starting line’ as the windward mark and spreader, the gate was standard and the finish line in the normal position halfway up the lake. ‘A’ rigs were the order of the day.
Racing was particularly keen with 8 of the 10 skippers racing ,picking up at least a 3rd place or better. It was clear that no race was won until you had actually crossed the line with plenty of places changing hands right up to the finish line on the last beat. Alan kept us all in check and wasn’t holding back calling early starters back regularly. After 8 races, honours for the day went to John C, with 5 firsts, then Clive 2nd with 2 firsts and 3 seconds, but this could have been reversed if Clive hadn’t needed to retire in race 1 after crossing the finish line first, only to be told he missed rounding the spreader mark. Commodore Dave was 3rd with a win and 2 seconds.
In summary, It was good to get back to some half decent sailing with no algae and very little weed, shame about the wind, but at least it wasn’t raining, and the racing was competitive but friendly. Thanks to Alan for the photos this week and Dave for the results.
It has been decided that Club racing will therefore resume with DF95’s this week (17th October) followed by IOM’s next week (24th). Sign up for DF95’s using the Dragon WhatsApp group this week, then future Saturday racing via the normal Events list. Contact the Webmaster if you need to be added to the Dragon WhatsApp group.
