Saturday – What a glorious day for sailing – T-shirt, shorts and sun cream (well for William at least), though there seemed to be a multitude of capsizes including the Commodore.

With the wind coming in a SSW direction over Sale Fell, the shifts were challenging as the down draughts hit the water. In the mirrors, Mik may have secured two wins, but the OD said there was only a coat of paint between them when they finished the 2nd race. Scumper didn’t have good day – First race spent pulling Zefer’s car off precipice; in rush for 2nd race realised that kite not rigged and ended up late for start. Roy wished he’d carried out his planned maintenance because the toe straps that he’s had since before Bass Week now need fitted! Robbie D, with Ginger Phil crewing, was in overnight lead for the handicap series from William and Lesley, each having a 1st & 2nd to count

The OD complained that there were no instructions on how to lay an anchor! Oh how Herb is missed on his days off!

Many had been forecasting force 8 gales for Sunday – but remember Bass has its own micro climate, and though windy it was sailable. With the wind coming over Sale Fell again, the OD took pity on the sailors and thought he’d let them have a breather as they drifted in its shadow working their way from 0 to 8!

Kayla was back on the water after many months recuperating from a back injury. But jumping into a F15 with Mike was challenging for her – spinnaker poles, finding sheets, gybing poles all left her somewhat confussled!

A spectacular reach by William and Ruth before the start almost ended in disaster when they had to avoid Mike Moore (Mike effect #1), but luffing up led to an equally spectacular high speed capsize and the loss of another burgee!

The afternoon course was set in the wind! Hard beats but some excellent runs/reaches down (5mins up, 3mins down). On the startline it seemed as if there’d been a massacre (well small one!) with Toggle and Big E capsizing on the start signal. For some reason Big E thought Robbie D (with Sam Hall) was to blame. Toggle had caught his pole on Mike’s horse (Mike effect #2). Scumper and Zefer took the lead and kept on going, William and Ruth struggled to shake off Robbie and Mike, but did eventually get some good offwind legs in to pull away somewhat. Following one gybe trying to avoid giving Mike water at a mark, Robbie went for a spectacular capsize (Mike effect #3 – hatrick!!!) marginally less impressive than William’s (according to Mike). Despite going turtle, Robbie recovered, sailed on and finished 3rd on handicap. This made no difference to his overall position of 1st having won the series with 2 1sts and a 2nd.

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.