In fact, Sunday’s racing concluded the Tinker Trophy leaving one race and two prizes to be sailed for next week – the Bassenthwaite Burgee and the Flying Enterprise Trophy.
The morning race started in light airs with Bridget and Ginge crossing the line first while William and Mike Cowan re-rigged the genny, and Mike Moore and Elaine just couldn’t get to the line on time. However, Mike didn’t hang back for long and soon had a spectacular lead. When the wind faded, the gaps between the boats narrowed; William gained an advantage from the change of wind direction but couldn’t quite break through (or even get an overlap if you believe Elaine!). Although Mike broke away again on the final beat, the fickle winds enabled Ginge to catch up enough to take the race on handicap. Certainly, due to the lack of wind, it wasn’t to be the day that Jim Christie was to demonstrate his prowess ‘on the wire’ in his Laser Vortex.
For the final race, Ginge, Mike and William were all on equal points. This forced Bridget to take to the water for another race (instead of going home to finish that Secretary’s report!). William took the first beat, but Mike powered back off the wind to take the lead. The gap varied with the wind strength. With just two marks to go, William was just 50yds behind Mike, but Mike rounded the mark and escaped the wind shadow leaving William to be swallowed up in a hole. William, unable to close the gap suuficiently to rescue a place, subsequently retired. Ginge and Bridget battled on but the final results gave first place, and the Tinker Trophy, to Mike and Elaine.
Overall results:
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 3473 M MOORE FF 3 4 2 1 6
2 13142 A HODGKINS GP 4 DNS 1 2 7
3 3268 W CARRUTHERS F 2 5 3 RTD 10
4 530 K CLARK FF 1 3 DNS DNS 13
5 33434 S WATSON MIR DNS DNS 4 3 16
6 2504 K THOMAS FF DNS 1 DNS DNS 19
7 13161 S SPENCE GP DNS 2 DNS DNS 20
8 102591 J CHRISTIE LAS DNS DNS RTD DNS 24
Points for RTD = 5 6 6 5
Points for DSQ = 5 6 6 5
Points for DNS = 9
3 races to count