A duller start, with the winds eased too, was a pleasant change for some achy sailors after Saturday! With just a selection of boats on the water they all sailed in the handicap Dodd Trophy series. Although William and Elaine led the way, the offwind legs were not always as windy as the beats, so the gap between them and Tim widened and narrowed as the race went on. It was on the reach before the final beat that William realised his rudder was no longer being held in place by the transom pintle – not good when the boat is on a reach with the gennaker flying! A capsize was avoided, but their race was over leaving Tim to go on and win his third race of the weekend.

The afternoon race was a pennant race for the Albert Bates Memorial Trophy, and as usual it was a round the laker. William had borrowed Keith’s F15 for the afternoon, but little did he know what he was letting Elaine in for. With a westerly wind, Sale Fell had maximum effect in terms of downdraughts and wind seemingly coming from numerous directions at once. Even on a run, there would be a shift that meant the spinnaker had to be gybed, and then fairly rapidly gybed back again! A missing mark 15 caused some confusion so the rescue boat became a temporary mark. William and Jim were in the right place at the right time and broke away with John Halliday following fairly closely behind. Some of the shifts caught Jim out and he had several capsizes and even did a vertical 360 at one stage when his boat fully turtled. At 50 mins, it was a relatively slow time to the leeward mark and the changeable winds continued on the beat(?) back up the lake. Although William broke away every now and again, Tim kept coming back, and he was first to clear Scarness and stayed ahead of William to the finish. On handicap he took his fourth and final win of the weekend.

Saturday Racing

Good racing conditions that led to some exciting racing, and various capsizes by Jim, Jo and Mik.

Dave Lawson and Robbie D, with Ethan, were both in Mirrors, pushing Mik Chappell’s position down the fleet a little, but he still leads the AB Series.

In the Celebrity Glass Pursuit, racing was relatively close with four different fleets on the same final leg. Tim Chittenden, with Ian Macpherson won and strengthened his lead from William and Elaine.

The second race was part of the long series Dodd Trophy, but starting was more like a pursuit with Tim and then William following on some minutes after the others! They say patience is a virtue, but not one that the OD was displaying today! 🙂