The seventh round of the Night Jar was similar in many ways to last week. There was a cloudless sky, warm sun but little wind. Only 16 boats were competing this week as some of the Topper and Radial helms were in exam prep mode.
At launching time the wind was a westerly and a course of 9-3-A was selected. But, just before the 6 minute signal, it swung through 90 degrees to the North. So the outer end of the line was moved round in the direction of A and the first mark was changed to 1. The inner mark was left slightly downwind of the Bates.
David with Lottie crewing in the GP went for a port end start but were over the line and signalled to return. The rest of the fleet continued on starboard with the exception of Peter Whipp who tacked off in the Laser soon after the start.
Robin, making a guest appearance in the 100, was first to round the windward mark and pulled out a lead from Alex and Olivia in their 200. The GPs tried to fly their kites on the next leg but without much success and by the time they, and the body of the fleet, reached 3 what little wind there now was had shifted North East resulting in a drifting log jam.
The first two boats were through well before this and heading for A where the shortened course flag was raised. They finished in 26 minutes and 32 minutes respectively. Ethan with his school mate crewing the second 200 was next up on the run to 3.
Then came the GPs of Val & Ken, AJ & Sue and a recovering Dave & Lottie. Val was through first. AJ had water on Dave at A and headed for the line between the distance marks, but Dave took the opportunity of squeezing between the inner mark and the Bates to cross the line a minute ahead.
All boats maintained momentum on the run up to A but the finishing time of the last finisher was three times that of the leader. Robin took the win from Alex & Olivia and Peter Whipp in both FH and PH categories