We were greeted with sunshine and a light Southerly breeze when we arrived at Gautby Rd for some Saturday fun. This provided testing and tricky condition particularly with the approach to the windward mark, with the mark sat in the lee of the clubhouse.
7 skippers got prepared, with numbers slightly down due to an IOM ranking event just up the road attracting some of the normal gang. Before starting Clive helped Neil replace a Rudder Servo, a casualty from Wednesday’s efforts. The buoy positions were fine with a slight bias on the start line for port but nobody chanced their arm getting a flier. Dave got racing underway on time at 12.00, and with only 7 boats starts were self monitored and finishes recorded by the first home.
From the start the racing was dominated by John, Clive and Neil with the rest having the odd skirmish into the top three, this was highlighted in the results with 6 of the 7 skippers earning a second place or higher. Such were the conditions which were a great leveller, and saw Clive and John both discarding a last place in their respective results. As mentioned the approach to the windward mark was particularly tricky and many a place changed hands within 20 meters of the mark. However this wasn’t the only problem area and the last beat from the gate to finish line was also “twitchy bum time” with the decision of when to try to work back to the control side and finish line or when to stay out in the breeze and loose out on the shifts.
Unfortunately we lost Neil again with further electrical problems in race 7 and wasn’t able to return. This seemed to spur Guy on who took over his place as a consistent top 3 finisher including 3 first places although like John and Clive he picked up a last place.
The minor places were also being very keenly contested between Dave, Stuart M and Stuart T, with Dave picking up a 2nd and 3rd, and Stuart M picking up a 2nd and two 3rds having had a much better afternoon than morning.
Summary
An enjoyable, dry day with plenty of frustration to share around between everybody, but still somehow enjoyable with some good friends for company. Thanks to Dave for the photos and results.
