It was more like Christmas! On Sunday morning, after a night’s snow fall on the surrounding hills, the lake was looking at its most spectacular
The wind freshened from the North just before the start, but it was not as blustery as Saturday. There was significant port bias on the start line, such that the handicap fleet were struggling to cross on starboard tack! Andy and Emma Smith were recorded as being over the line at the start and had to return to restart.
The results of the first race demonstrate how close the handicapping is with the RS200 and Laser splitting the first three RS400s
After lunch the fleet sauntered out to the start on the far side of the lake, only to find that the wind was considerably stronger. This resulted in several capsizes, and a number of boats retiring even before racing started!
Again, the racing proved to be close with Phil Smith and Naomi Darling winning by 30 secs on handicap, with only 15 secs separating the next three boats. However, after an adjustment of the finishing times (some boats suffered a 3min penalty!) there was only 12 secs between Bean and Scumper. You just can’t get the staff these days!
Reigning champion of the annual egg dump, Jack Lawson, came to defend his title but having had to borrow one of Herb’s ‘spare’ eggs he did not find his winning ways and was dumped in the first round. It was to be Emma Smith that took the winning honours this year.
On Monday the wintery weather continued, with a white out for a short while at the end of the first race.
Phil and Naomi won the morning race which meant the series was for the taking in the afternoon. The course kept the fleet in the wind which came in with some good gusts at times, resulting in several more capsizes – at least one in each fleet – Toggle, Nigel Lewis and Mik Chappell. Emma Smith sailed the final race in Tim Mirror while he crewed for Andy – and she kept Mik at bay. He was getting so frustrated that he hardened up on a gust to try and get past her that he went for an unwelcome swim.
It was a clean sweep for Dave and Lynn Lawson in the GPs and Tim Smith in the Mirrors. On handicap, the results split Bean and Scumper by only one second (in Scumpers favour)
Chris Tooley and I were invited to attend the dinghy show by the NSSA last weekend. We drove down on Friday night and stayed two nights (expenses paid!). We took the Mount Haes trophy we won at the Youth Regatta held at Plymouth last July and spent some time on the stand talking to visitors. 
We arrived at Alexandra Palace for the opening of the show on Saturday morning and saw Ben Ainslie when he cut the ribbon. (He’s a lot smaller than he looks in pictures) There were talks from loads of top sailors including Paul Goodison, GBR Olympic laser sailor. There was loads to do, looking around all of the stands, wishing you could afford all the shiny boats, collecting freebies and getting a bit over-competitive at the model boat pool. 
