…Old habits that is! Roy was glad to be back at the helm again with Kirsty crewing. It’s a shame he wasn’t au fait with the start times of the pursuit race as he, and several other RS400s, seemed to be oblivious to the fact that they should be starting, which made William and Jonathan very nervous as to whether they had in fact started too early! Over the course of the 70 min pursuit, it was the final 5 mins where several positions changed – must have been some good handicapping!
As for the second race, Roy was again someway behind the rest of the fleet at the start and he topped it off with a capsize on the gybe mark, and finally tried to run Kirsty over when coming ashore (she’d managed to keep her hair dry until then!)
Of course the main sailing of the weekend is the Martin 16 National Championships, being sailed at Bass for the first time. Commodore Steve Hunt, as OD for the weekend, managed to get in the first 4 races of the 8 race championship. Clearly there is some close competition between the leading boats. The morning races were held in very windy conditions, and one hardy sole raised their spinnaker, but quickly dropped it again. Fortunately the design of the boat is such that the risk of capsize is minimal (I think!)