Good sailing conditions tempted 11 boats to the water for the Celebrity Glass pursuit. Pam in her Mirror was the first to start, and she held her lead well until a rope caught as she tacked resulting in a capsize which she could not recover from and retired.
The chasing fleets had some close competition that continued through to the final tacks on the finish line with four boats finishing in less than 20 secs, and all boats finishing within 4 mins. There must have been several people wondering ‘if only’, as various incidents had boats doing turns (and perhaps some more that should have done them!). With one leg to go, Banter looked in a strong position to win, but Dave/Sarah sailed well to take the lead as Mike/Kayla done a penalty turn at the penultimate mark. It was to be a final tack on the finish line that Mike won from Dave, with Banter 3rd.
Latest results
– Celebrity Glass Pursuit
– BL etc
Sunday’s conditions were considerably more blustery, and fortunately it remained dry.
With the rescue crews still on holiday, Peter and AJ stepped into the breech. They were eager to help when it came to moving a mark – shame they didn’t take account of the Bates’ anchor warp in their manoeuvres (fortunately they were warned just in time!). You just can’t get the staff these days….
With only two takers in the Asymmetric Cup there was an opportunity for match racing between Toggle and Banter in their Vareos. Tog had the best start, and led through to the 2nd leg when Banter took advantage of some better gusts to storm through to the lead. With gybing proving challenging, it would be down to making the least number of mistakes. There was some close racing on the beats, and both helms suffered numerous capsizes, but it was to be the final run that was the decider. Tog was leading, and Banter opted for the opposite side of the course, but capsized whilst gybing. Herb commented that Banter should be calling it a day, but he didn’t; after righting his boat he continued racing, and Tog promptly capsized. As Tog had his mast stuck in the mud, Banter took full advantage of the situation, took the lead and won! Tog retired. Banter leads the series.
In the MJM series, there were three F15s and a GP. Phil/Hannah capsized their GP several times at the numerous gybe mark, and eventually capsized. Tim and daughter(?), didn’t seem to be far behind on the capsize stakes, broaching several times, and being flattened at least once! That left Mike/Kayla and Graham/Elaine to battle it out for the lead. Mike must have been generally comfortable with his lead as he didn’t chance flying his kite very often, until Graham started to close the gap that is! At the penultimate mark, Graham was on Mike’s tail, but Mike covered up the final beat, and won by a small margin and currently leads the series.
Latest results – Asymmetric Cup/MJM