A busy weekend at the club started with an Easter egg hunt on the sunny Saturday morning.
Afterwards, the adjacent photo shows an alternative egg hunt when Henry lost his egg in the pool table!
Those that have replaced their boats through the close season were keen to set them up and get on the water. However, whatever wind there had been faded unfortunately, and there was not enough wind to get racing underway, so there was a postponement, before it was abandoned for the day.
Sunday’s forecast SSE F3-4 came to fruition, though without too many heavy gusts. The OD took the opportunity to use a windward/leeward course between 0 and 7 for the main fleets which some of the F15 sailors did not fully appreciate when they came ashore for lunch! There were many planing conditions, and various capsizes throughout the morning.
The two races after lunch were, generally, in slightly lighter winds, but with good planing opportunities. A couple of gybe marks in the courses caught several sailors out so kept the rescue crews occupied.
Three races in windy conditions proved to be too much for some, so there were various retirements.
Through the day there were 42 starters across the four fleets. The overnight leaders of three fleets each have three wins – Andy/Ian in the F15s, Dave/Lynn in the GPs, and Phil/Oliver in the Slow handicap fleet. Pix/Matt lead the Fast handicap with a 2nd and a 1st.
Monday was forecast to be wet and windy. With a SW wind it didn’t look too bad from the shore, and just as the committee boat set out there were some sprinklings of rain – fortunately they didn’t last long!
There were various strong gusts in the first race that caused multiple capsizes, but there were plenty of good spinnaker reaches to make up for the odd swim.
The races were held back to back to avoid the forecast downpours, but numerous boats thought one race was enough so numbers were reduced for the final race. The wind eased considerably so there were no capsizes or exciting reaches in the final race, and the rain held off too!
In the F15s, the Easterly Trophy was won by Andy/Ian with five wins, with Robbie D/Toggle 2nd, and Andy T/Keith 3rd.
In the handicap fleet, Pix/Matt won the Easter Trophy, with John Reekie 2nd, and Phil/Oscar 3rd.
Dave/Lynn won the Bass Tankard in the GPs, with Alan/Sue 2nd.
Phil/Oliver won the Image Trophy in the slow handicap fleet, with Alex/Saskia 2nd, and Matty 3rd
The start of the sailing season was quite eventful. The Commodore was travelling up the motorway to be OD for the first day’s racing, but his car had other ideas! While waiting to be recovered, Ian was able to enjoy his coffee under blue skies…