Well it is now. The final days racing was held in a force 2-3 – not boat bending weather you may think. Well William and Mike Cowan were to find out otherwise. Two minutes before the start and Mike asked if the was enough outhaul on, yanked the cord and Ping! it just came off in his hand! A quick scramble on to the transom allowed William to lash up the outhaul. It was soon very obvious that the main was going to look as full as Bridget Jones’ knickers for the rest of the race. Apparently Mike Moore and Elaine Fairlamb didn’t have the correct timing for the start of the race and William used this to his advantage to cover Mike as much as possible. After two laps Mike slipped out of William’s windstream, took advantage of a better lift and by the time William had tacked back to take command again Mike had broken through to the lead. At this stage a piece of elastic on William’s pole system went twang and more repairs on the move were required! To top it all, on the final leg, his kicking strap gave up the ghost as well!
Ginge and Jose had a final(?) sail around the course in their GP before upgrading to a new Duffin for next season. No mishaps, no capsizes and Jose kept her knickers dry too – how uneventful! Not quite the same could be said for Tim Chittenden in his laser though – he underestimated the windstrength a little and found that the gusts made for excellent planing conditions but they always came just at the gybe mark! So the prize for the last capsize(s) of the year must go to Tim. Let’s hope his teeth stop chattering before next season.
As the race was on fleet handicap, Mike Moore won both the Bassenthwaite Burgee and the Flying Enterprise Trophy for being first Flying 15.