Another blustery evening with a Force 4 Southerly wind and choppy water which put a few people off. Others took their time in deciding to launch which delayed the start for a while. Will need to be on time on the next two Thursdays or we will be finishing in the dark.
The course was 0-8-A-B which could have been better as it gave a slow reach in the lee of Sale Fell and ended with a quirky second beat into 8. Never mind, there was more than enough wind on the A-B leg!
Dave and Lynn took the lead of the eleven boat fleet followed by John Crosbie in his 400. Gary had not taken the FF out in such heavy conditions and was struggling, so he & Kayla headed ashore. And John was caught out on the exposed and gusty third leg and ended up with a fair length of his mast embedded in the mud. In fact there were numerous capsizes and the two safety boats were continuously at work standing by and assisting.
Hazel, Lottie and David in the three Toppers had taken a considerable time to negotiate the Sale Fell wind shadow and, with the wind strengthening further, they were finished in that order at the end of lap 1 having endured 25 minutes of hard racing.
At their finish at the end of lap 2 it was the GP’s of David & Lynn, Val & Ken and AJ & Sue ahead of the Radials of Paul, Peter and Nigel. And that was also the finishing order on Fleet Handicap.
AJ & Sue took another win on Personal Handicap and are virtually assured of winning the Series. Peter was an excellent second and there were, somewhat incredulously, identical corrected times for third place between Val & Ken and Paul.