From a hazy, overcast morning with no wind, a light breeze quickly filled in from the north east. There were occasional holes, but the fleet generally kept moving even if at a slow pace.

Telf opted to sail his Mirror single handed, and went for a port on port start only to be challenged by a Merlin Rocket, F15 and RS400 – that didn’t stop him going on to win the race from Mike Fairlamb, if only by a few secs. However, Mike’s 2nd was enough to put him in pole position with another two races to go.

After lunch the wind did not look at all promising, but it did fill in again from the north and racing got under way, albeit without much of a beat (Apart from the final leg!). The bunching of the fleet, combined with the use of personal handicaps caused the results to be a bit topsy turvy.

As the forecast rain came in, and the wind eased there were substantially reduced takers for a final race, which seemed as if was to be the best race of the day, as the wind had filled in from the west, and caused a couple of capsizes before the start. However, it was not to last. By the end of the first beat the wind had eased considerably, the next reach turned into a drifter and a beat! To cap it all the rain was persistent, and the drift continued to the end of the race. Alan Waugh came out on top, with William and Elaine 2nd, which was enough to give them pole position for the series.

The highlight of the afternoon was Toddy trying to take his buoyancy aid off before his over trousers!

Saturday

This weekend’s sailing comprises a six race series. The sun is out; there is a slight breeze; will it all last?

In fact it did last all afternoon. The sea breeze caused the direction of the beat to swing more to the west, and there were some good gusts to enable the occasional plane.

Mike Moore could have been practising his ballet, as he had to do some pirouettes after a collision with Mike Fairlamb on the startline of the 2nd race. The GPs generally seemed to be doing a mop up job by following the fleets after having late starts – it was Val and Ken Bell that were late for the 2nd race, and Mike Fairlamb late for the 3rd race (well he had gone ashore for a brew!).

All in all an excellent afternoon’s racing – three races tomorrow, though we can’t be assured of such good weather