With the schools back, the weather has perked up for a brief Indian summer and providing champagne sailing conditions. The Tinker Association had a smaller fleet than usual for their open meeting, while club boats were racing� in a weekend series for the Tinker Trophy.
Fortunately the light westerly was enhanced by the effects of a sea breeze, though, as ever, there were some regular swings in direction enabling gains for those on the right shifts! Paul/Vicki were generally leading the fleet on the water, but when Val/Ken chose to fly their kite on a tight reach they broke through to lead the race to the end.
As forecast, the wind was lighter on Sunday so there was a slight delay to the start waiting for the wind to fill back in which just about held for the morning race which Neil led on the water. To avoid the heavy rain forecast for early afternoon, it was proposed to sail the races back to back, but boats headed ashore due to the light wind. After lunch the wind came in from the south with gusto tempting Banter to take out his RS300, but it was the first reach before he took the lead and broke away. The offwind legs had some exciting planing conditions when some gusts came through (together with some more persistent rain), and there was at least one capsize.
Final results (when available)
Good luck to all those members taking part in the Great North Run on Sunday.
With many families having been sailing elsewhere in the past week, and another wet and windy forecast, there was only a few takers for the weekend fleet challenge.
Meanwhile various 
