A poor forecast of wet weather and gusting winds led to a small collection of sailors turning out to race. While they waited for more to appear the wind looked acceptably sailable though somewhat wet. By the time the decision was made that there was enough interest, a rescue contingent was pulled together, and boats were prepared, the more blustery conditions suddenly appeared, and Lynn Lawson led the retreat! Sailing secretary Joe Roberts opted to test the suitability of conditions in his Laser, but when he returned, after the odd capsize, he decided he had had enough! A couple of boats went out for a sail, but racing was cancelled for the day.
Sunday morning came, the rain had passed, the wind had eased, and there was more interest in sailing. It was the last race in the Blencathra series in which Ian/Lezli-Ann were leading -should they stay ashore preventing Mike/Kayla from having a race, thereby securing the trophy? No, they wanted to sail! Claiming water at one mark, Ian misheard Mike’s response so ducked out, and missed a chance to take the lead which Mike held to the finish, taking the trophy.
In the GPs, Dave/Lynn led and won the race, with Val/Ken close on their heels all the way round, but it was series leaders Mike/Eric (who weren’t sailing) that kept their pole position winning the Mustard Pot.
Robbie D/Banter in their RS400 enjoyed the planing conditions on various spinnaker legs, catching up with, and passing, the F15s. Despite winning the race is more than a minute ahead of Zefer in his Laser Radial, Robbie D didn’t have enough qualifying results to win the Dodd Cup series from Ian Hall.
After lunch the Banana Stakes would take the fleet around the lake on a simple course comprising two two beats and two reaches – well that was the theory. Scarness itself caused a few problems with several boats misjudging how shallow the water was on the spit and consequently scraping their centreboards and rudders on the bottom. Val/Ken grounded a little too hard damaging their rudder and had to retire. As with most Westerlies the winds past Scarness were changeable as the gusts came over Sale Fell and became and downdraughts which spread out in all directions as they hit the lake – challenging as ever! Banter helmed the RS400 this time with Robbie D crewing, and led around the course, but conditions didn’t let them break away, finishing sixth on handicap. It was Dave/Lynn in their GP14 that took the honours with Joe securing another 2nd.