Sun and a great sailing wind greeted the fleet of seven boats for another race in the Celebrity Glass Pursuit.
Paul Clark started on the wrong signal and that seemed to put others, well Jim Christie, off their scheduled time too. Jim made it back in time, but Paul restarted about 40 secs late (just ahead of Jim). Jim soon passed Paul, and was then chased, mainly by the F15s for the rest of the pursuit. Although Mike/Kayla closed the gap on Jim, the various reaches ensured that at the finish signal still had a 30 sec lead over Mike. Mike leads the series.
There were three extra boats for the 2nd race, though Scumper and Tog, back from the Vareo Nationals (with the Trophy!), having had all afternoon to prepare, were 4 mins later for their start! The gap closed a little when the lead boats rounded 4 the wrong way, eventually realised their mistake, rerounded it, but took a while longer to realise that they had to unwind their initial mistake! Jim managed to hold the lead and won on handicap.
In the F15s, Ian/Lezli-Ann tried to squeeze Mike out of the start line. Mike snuck through, tacked, hit the mark, had to do a penalty turn and then chase the other boats. By the windward mark he had passed Ian MacP/Sally, but Ian C kept him at bay until the final beat where he cover tacked Mike, but not well enough, and Mike won by a few boat lengths.
Sunday started just as sunny, but calm. As the morning passed, the wind freshened from the SE which set a great scene for the day’s racing, especially the afternoon pennant race.
Scumper had been out having a local celebration of his becoming Vareo National champion, so there were a few sore heads about, and even though Scumper struggled to locate the windward mark from the startline, he went on to win on handicap from Jim Christie. After two laps the wind faded a little for a while, and then back with some gusto from the SW. Paul/Emily put in a good performance in their Graduate finishing 3rd ahead of Joan/Jack in an RS200.
The F15 fleet was led by Mike/Kayla, with Ian/Lezli-Ann 2nd. Val/Ken won the GPs, with Alan 2nd.
Andy/Katia led the Mirrors for a while, lost the spinnaker sheets under the boat (and looked in a somewhat precarious position as Andy tried to rcoved them while still helming), and were then passed by Alan. However, Alan capsized in one of the SW gusts, turtled, and potentially wrote off his boat when he pulled on the dagger board and dislodged the board casing when it came away from the thwart! Andy won, and wife Emma was 2nd.
Over lunch time the wind strengthened from the SW which tempted a few boats back on to the water. With the wind swinging around Sale Fell, there was still a good breeze to take the fleet around the lake for the Banana Stakes pennant. Ian/Lezli-Ann took an early lead with Mike/Kayla in hot pursuit. The gusty winds in the bay led to a few capsizes, including Val/Ken and Peter. However, further down the lake the wind was lighter but seemed relatively steady (in round the lake terms anyway!).
Returning back into the bay, Mike was leading with Ian in hot pursuit! The gusty conditions led to some near broaches by the lead F15s and panic taking down of their spinnakers! Peter suffered a few more capsizes back in the bay, but continued on to the end.
On personal handicap, Paul/Emily won in their Graduate with Chris/Julie 2nd in a F15.
Sue again rushed from work to defend Sandra’s Salver, and it was obviously worthwhile as she still leads the series.