The weather was perfect, bright, sunny and warm, with lots of wind: beaver at its best! Before the first race, it didn’t look all that windy but then when we all set off rather large gusts took us all by surprise as we suddenly started pulling on heaps and heaps of controls and hiking hard.
The first race got off to a good start, with Will and Emma first around the windward mark, closely followed by Emma and Reg, who caught a lucky gust and pulled ahead. There were many battles between the rest of the fleet up that beat as the winds were rather shifty. Bob Towler and Mark Hide had a great day as single handers, with their positions changing throughout the whole race. Malcolm and Harry and Andy and Gemma Burnett also had a good race. After a reckless capsize, Emma and Rachel had to make a brief pit-stop at the jetty to relive themselves of some water giving Will and Emma a hefty lead. The overall positions were: Will and Emma 1st, Emma and Rachel 2nd, and Mark Hide 3rd.
For the second race the conditions hadn’t altered and it was another demanding race for everybody. Thankfully this time there was no capsizes but some regrettable spinnaker hoists. The course had changed slightly but for the worst as because of the wind direction coming over the bank, there was an awful fetch which was tricky to interpret. Olly White had a really good race that time round as he had to retire in the first race with a jib malfunction. The results for that race were: Emma and Red 1st, Will and Emma 2nd, and again, Mark Hide 3rd.
The course reverted back to the original for the third race, with a brilliant tussle between Emma and Reg, Olly White and Will and Emma playing for the final position. Sarah and Nell had a consistent day as did Rob Dean, another single hander. The overall positions of the day were: Emma and Rachel 1st; Will and Emma 2nd; Mark Hide 3rd; Oliver White 4th; Bob Towler 5th; Rob Dean 6th; Sarah and Nell 7th; Andy, Gemma and Jack 8th and 9th Malcolm and Harry.
Written by Emma Grayson
