The early start to the Holiday Weekend allowed a number of crews who don’t usually sail in Thursday Racing to take to the water. We had Mike & Kayla in the Fifteen and Banter Phil in the 100 to bolster numbers. And Dave Lawson was out in the Club Laser.
There was a light wind, mainly westerly, and the course was a diamond 0-9-B-A. The first beat was difficult to read and changed the normal running order a bit. After the windward mark it was Phil leading from Joan & Jack in the GP and then Dave in the Laser FR and Neil in the Radial in fairly close company. The Fifteen was moving up after a mediocre first beat.
AJ & Sue had dropped back in the second GP when they went fishing for Jack’s hat. After that AJ reckoned that the soggy garment in his kite bag was slowing them down! Phil continued to extend his lead on the water on the second lap and Joan & Jack were continuing to hold off the Fifteen.
It was decided to stop Bob Gate in his Laser and Paul Gannon in the Radial at the end of lap 2. And also John Roberts in his new colourful Radial – although why he wasn’t out in the Pico after his double victory last week only he knows? It was decided to let Tony’s Solo continue but, by his own admission, the light wind expert was having a dismal race.
In fading wind Phil took line honours from Joan & Jack. The GP crew were first on PH and have, at last, knocked Tony off top spot in the PH Series. On FH they have narrowed the gap to the series leader despite Phil winning this round. However, with better discards, Tony will still win that series on count back even if Joan & Jack take wins in the final two rounds.
Then it was meal time, it being prepared this week by John Reekie and family. Oh, and apologies to Sarah for not mentioning that she was last week’s chef!