After a couple of clear nights, the air temperature dropped significantly despite a southerly breeze. Fortunately the rain held off throughout the day.
The morning cadet training session had a couple of capsizes as the wind funnelled through the narrows at Scarness, and there was an unusually large wind shadow from Sale Fell in Dubwath bay area which the OD tried to avoid for afternoon racing. A large group of the Cadet fleet travelled to Leigh & Lowton for some training/racing – a great day had by all despite a lack of wind.
In the first race John Reekie led the fleet, with AJ/Sue putting up a good fight for the first lap, but a late drop of their kite was an opportunity Val/Ken ceased to pass them. There were lulls in the wind strength as it wind swung more to the SW.
The start line was moved for race 2 and the wind strengthened slightly for the rest of the day. Perhaps AJ was analysing his performance between races to the extent that he was 30 secs late for the start, a distance that he was unable to make back up. This time Val/Ken led the fleet around the course, and Neil in his Solo had a better race finishing 2nd on the water ahead of Mike in his Streaker.
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A wet night, and drizzly morning, seemed to generate some reluctance to venture out, but nine boats did follow the start boat out for another couple of races in a shifty SW F1-2 gusting 3 occasionally.
Neil was a bit too keen for the first start, recalled, capsized, got his mast in the mud, recovered, and restarted some 5 minutes behind the rest of the fleet! Steve/Ruth led both races, and pulled out a strong lead. AJ/Sue sailed well, and surely would have beaten the other main rivals in the GP fleet, if only they had turned up to race! John/Steve in their F15 learned that running into the back of another boat is not the done thing, and had to do two turns as a penalty.