After another drizzly start, the day brightened and the breeze picked up somewhat before racing got underway such that Roy, and Toggle, went for early swims (or so I thought – apparently Toggle was undertaking some running repairs). The blustery conditions continued after the start to the extent that William took the cautious route (having beaten the fleet to the windward mark!) and took Elaine ashore. Roy and Kirstie retired soon afterwards. There were a couple of near misses at the windward mark as Hugh and Rhonwen started to realise that F15s will not bear away as readily as GPs (especially when they’re healing over!) but William and Shunty, though distracted by the incidents (and Rhonwen screaming tack), escaped unscathed.
Though in the lead, Shunty and Ruth put in an enthusiastic gybe and went for a brief swim dropping him back to 3rd on handicap. 1st place honours went to Dave Lawson, with Sam Hall 2nd
The afternoon race was for a pennant in aid of the Jubilee Sailing Trust, and in the usual tradition the course took the fleet around the lake. After the blustery breeze in the morning, racing was a lot more tame. William had mistimed the start by a mere 3 mins but realised just in time to not throw the race away because anything can happen in a round the laker (and it usually does!). The NW breeze allowed the fleet to run/reach (in the occasional gusts) all the way down to 12. Shunty had broken away but was becalmed for a while and the bank of boats crept ever closer. He tried to call rank on William and Elaine as they reached past his transom with that uncommon sailing term ‘Do you know who I am?’. No worries though because William gybed into the lake and found a hole of his very own allowing Shunty and Mike Moore to break away. Although it took the fleet 50 mins to get down the lake, all classes were so close together at 12 it was as if they had only recently started. With Shunty and Mike heading back up the lake on the eastern shore, William initially opted to stay left. Unfortunately every time he tried to cross over the winds were against him so he just HAD to continue up the A66, getting lifted all the way. In the meantime, Shunty and Mike again wallowed in a calm patch while William held the breeze. By 7, William was ahead of Shunty, but the breeze had filled in for Shunty so it became a race to the finish. To Shunty’s dismay wife Elaine was to beat him (again!) after the 30 min beat back. William reckoned that the only thing that could have topped beating Steve would have been doing the same to Neil Currie! On fleet handicap basis, it was to be Dave Lawson in his GP that won overall.