Considering the weather over recent weeks, ironically, the final Saturday of meteorological summer started with an abundance of bright sunshine and a lack of wind, it filled in from the south with some white horses in the narrows at Scarness.
As racing started, the wind backed and eased, took away planing conditions, and minimised the risk of capsizing (much to AJ’s relief). Though Dave/Lynn won both races in the GPs, they didn’t have it all their own way, and had to pass AJ/Sue in the first race! AJ sailed consistently enough to secure 2nd place in both races.
Neil/Archie led both handicap races by a large margin, securing a 1st and a 2nd. Ian in a Solo was the other winner, while Rory, also in a Solo, took the other 2nd
Sunday’s forecast was somewhat mixed with conflicting predictions as to the direction (E and NW). During the morning there was a patchy NE that filled in with a vengeance just before sailors headed out.
The beat on the course was soon very one sided as the wind veered more to the south, and though the OD anticipated the wind would back again to the east, it didn’t so the race was shortened after 30 minutes. Neil/Archie led and won the handicap race, while Dave/Lynn won the GPs.
The next race was the RNLI pennant, in the distant past held around the lake. However, with the southerly breeze holding out, there was an appetite to head down the lake by all sailors, so a compromise course down to mark 10 was agreed.
The fleet stayed very close together, and Neil/Archie in their RS200 led, with AJ/Sue next around the windward mark, ahead of Dave/Lynn, a position they held for most of the run down to 3. Dave had taken heed of the light and fluky airs along the eastern shoreline, and by keeping west he pulled back to make it a close fight to the finish.
Coming in to the final mark the GPs seemed to be taking it to starboard instead of port, much to the consternation of Neil who was reaching in on starboard! Consequently AJ got flustered and dropped back from being 1st on the water to 3rd as Neil, then Dave got past, there being no more than 4 secs between them all!
Dave won on handicap , AJ 2nd , and Neil 3rd
RNLI pennant overall results