The warmest bank holiday weekend of the year, with a strong southerly breeze, greeted a fleet of nine catapult association sailors for their national championship. The gusts caught out some sailors and results in a capsize – catamarans not being easy boats to right! With a southerly being the ideal direction for going round the lake, the OD set a course right to the southern end – a 35min beat, followed by a zigzag reaching course back to the finish. After 2 races, Roger Hodgkinson of Herne Bay is in the lead with a 2nd and a 1st.
Club racing took place alongside the Catapults with another two races in the Barf Plate series. In the first race Steve and Ruth took the lead from Scumper and Zepher on the penultimate reach before the finish, and won the race on handicap.
The race around the lake proved to be hard slog even for the beefcakes. William and Elaine were first to 12 out of the RS400s, but Mike Moore and Kayla in an F15 were not too far behind. Scumper took the lead and broke away on the reach to 11 after William gybed and wineglassed his gennaker. As the fleet sailed the final beat from 1 to 0, the shadow of Sale Fell caused the relative positions to go somewhat awry. Robbie D and Phil Hodgkins passed Bean and Naomi, but Mike Moore held his position and won on handicap