Thanks to Bruce Mager for taking and allowing us to use these photos of race 2
Saturday was host to a fantastic days racing at Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club. We had some tough, gusty, heavy wind conditions with lots of shifts to contend with.
Race 1 was exciting with lots of tight reaches with boats reaching exhilarating speeds, Ben and Gabe zoomed down past the clubhouse at break-neck speed with hardly any boat left in the water! Reg and Gemma won the race, followed by Sarah and Sandy.
After a lovely lunch of lasagne and ice cream provided by the galley, we set off for Race 2 which was very eventful! A capsize by Reg and Gemma left the field open for Sarah and Sandy to storm ahead and take an unbeatable lead with Ben and Gabe in second. George and April also decided to take a dip in the lake along one of the reaches. However, George soon learnt that drysuits only stay dry if they’re zipped up! It appears that not zipping his drysuit is becoming a regular occurrence for George despite the fact it makes him very wet!!! Robert and Jamie also had some unfortunate boat maintenance issues which it was such a shame to see as they’d been sailing so well!
With 3 boats in contention to win, the last race was down to the wire. Whoever won, won the day! After a shift to the left, we had a new windward mark which lay close to the bank which caused horrible gusty conditions which were unpredictable and flukey. On the start line, at about 5 seconds to go there was a GIANT shift to port which gave way to an incredible port flyer by Sarah and Sandy which really put the pressure on the fleet. The race was well fought and playing the shifts was more important than ever before! After lots of tussling Reg and Gemma fought their way back and pulled ahead down one of the reaches to take first with Sarah and Sandy following in second. Third place was taken by Ben and Gabe who it was great to see back on the circuit after we missed them in squads this year!
Sadly, that was the last competition in a mirror for April and Jamie who it was great to see out racing and good luck to them in their RS 200. We were thankful to them for crewing for Robert and George so we could have some more competition on the water! I also wonder whether Megan and Alexander should be worried about being replaced…
Furthermore, it was great to see some of the local boats competing and doing well, I really hope we’ll see them again at some of the other events on the circuit!
The Results
1st – Reg and Gemma
2nd – Sarah and Sandy
3rd – Ben and Gabe
4th – Robert and Jamie
5th – Craig and Adam
6th – George and April
7th – Will and Evan
Finally, thanks to Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club for a fantastic event! Also thank you to my amazing crew Gemma for coping with her back injury and my intolerable bossiness, that girl deserves a medal! And I must thank the Simpsons for the loan of my lucky burgee.
Report by Rachel Grayson
