Following the excess wind and rain leading up to the weekend, all the sailors had to contend with was sunshine and showers. The winds were light, and racing on Sunday was delayed waiting for the wind to fill in. Attempts to sail the final race were abandoned. Neil Platt from Bolton & West Kirby, with our own Sally Roberts, had equal points with Martin Brennan from Hollingworth, but won the series on the last race tie break.

The forecast was for more wind than Sunday, but there was considerably less as the boats were rigged. By the time the boats were on the water the wind had filled in and looked considerably more promising but, as ever, there were some big shifts to contend with and as a result the fleets were all well intermingled at the windward mark.

The gusts kept coming through, and boats had to work hard to stay upright on the reaches. Rhonwen was caught out by a gust just at the stage when her rudder had lifted, so she ended up in the water (score of 5.2 for the back flip?!). Not content with 5.2 for artistic content Rhonwen tried even harder in the final race and achieved a 5.5 for her capsize. The fact that Sam was laughing at the time isn’t sufficient to raise the score any more!

The Mirror results may look like it was a done deal with Mik Chappell taking both races – what it doesn’t show is that Toddy was in front of him for quite some time. This is a great confidence booster and could be a sign of things to come.

As Ian Preston and Jess Roberts were sailing today, Mike Moore and Mark Rimmer did some pot hunting in the F15 fleet and it paid off with two firsts to take the Jack Pot Trophy.

The final results for the handicap fleet were all dependant on the last race with no less than four in contention for the May Holiday Trophy. Robbie D and Ethan remained in the frame until the final run when Ethan didn’t manage to hold the tiller straight for quite long enough and they capsized. Scumper and Toggle were first to the windward mark but lost the lead to William and Jonathan at the next gybe mark. The gusting tight reach was just too much and William had to recover from a near capsize allowing Shunty and Ruth to have their turn in the lead! But that wasn’t it, the three RS400s remained in close contention, with the lead changing a couple of times, until the final lap when Shunty broke away. When the handicaps were calculated Joan Hardie was first with Shunty second, more than enough for him to win the trophy.

The Graduates have now completed their championship and the final results are shown below

As expected, the wind eased for the second day of the handicap open meeting. With an earlier than usual start the OD was able to run all three races.

The wind shifts may have been subtle, but they could be deadly and several places changed as a result. This led to  the overall result resting on the final race. This is where Naomi (the love of Bean’s life) gets a special mention – partly because she didn’t get one last time L, but mainly because if she’d had the opportunity to fly the gennaker on the final reach she and Bean would have made up the necessary five secs required to beat Scumper and Zefer, and take the winning trophy from them.

Roy Blackburn was getting back in the swing (instead of swim for a change) and succeeded in being first to the windward mark in two of the races. Unfortunately, the first time he did it he was set on rounding it to port instead of starboard and ended up in the way of various boats on his tail.

Toggle did a bit of trawling at one stage, but still secured a prize as first Vareo, Mark Rimmer received a prize in his first Bass open. Lewis Tyson was first Topper. Ruth Critchley received a prize for putting up with her helm who had spat out his dummy twice in one day – we’ll let him off opting out of Saturday’s race after the first beat (otherwise it would have been a hat-trick). In fact it seems that only Bass members received prizes on this rare occasion. One visitor that appeared late on Saturday afternoon was unwelcome and ejected from the clubhouse (well, it was a mouse!)

HANDICAP OPEN

PN    Boat  Helm          Class        1   2   3   4 Pts
 1    1049  M SOMERVILLE  RS400        1   4   2   1   4
 2     691  P SMITH       RS200      DNS   1   3   2   6
 3     379  R DAWSON      RS200      DNS   2   4   3   9
 4    1303  W CARRUTHERS  RS400      DNS   5   1   4  10
 5  167828  I MACPHERSON  LAS          2   3   5   7  10
 6  174889  S HALL        LAS        RTD   6   6   6  18
 7    1029  R BLACKBURN   RS400      RTD   7   8   5  19
 8  160516  T CHITTENDEN  LAS        DNS   9   7   8  24
 9    1298  S HUNT        RS400      RTD RTD   9 RTD  27
10     303  M COWAN       VAREO      DNS   8  10   9  27
11    1066  J CONNOR      RSFEVA     RTD DNS DNS DNS  35
12     374  M RIMMER      VAREO      DNS DNS  11  10  35
13   45866  L TYSON       TOP        DNS DNS  12  11  37

                     Points for RTD =  7  11  13  12
                     Points for DSQ =  7  11  13  12
                     Points for DNS = 14

 3 races to count

All Bets Off!

The high winds that started on Friday were still around for the FA Cup final – were these the reasons why there were few takers for the Handicap Open? Those members that turned up were only slightly less reluctant to go on the water than the OD! After a quick show of hands it was decided to race, and all but the feint-hearted ventured out. Scumper and Zefer were the first to go out, but after 10mins (during which time no-one else had followed them) came ashore (but only to rig their gennaker correctly as it would only fly properly on port tack).

Six boats did go out, Scumper was the first to capsize, followed by Jonathan Connor, Sam Hall, Ian Macpherson, and Roy Blackburn. The only survivor was Shunty and Ruth – they sailed the first beat and then came straight ashore.

Roy’s crew for the weekend is Megan, a young, new member. She admitted to never having sailed so fast, and that was without the gennaker! Of course, as mentioned earlier, Roy’s old habits die hard, and they ended up swimming! But they’ll be back for more tomorrow.

As it seemed to be a dead cert that all those taking to the water would be going for a swim the only betting was to be on how long they would stay upright!

Those that didn’t risk life and limb, stayed ashore and enjoyed afternoon tea and biscuits……

With so many capsizes, the OD called it a day after the first race and postponed sailing until Sunday and then sat back and watched the rest of the cup final. First race 10.30!