As the schools broke up for half term, so did the weather! Rain came in overnight, and the wind built too, though the temperature remained relatively mild. The SW wind made use of Sale Fell to disturb some of the racing area.
Saturday racing was a two race series for the Mark Ninnim Memorial trophy with all classes racing together, so it was a busy start line with 27 boats. A rain shower before racing eased the wind strength for a while, but once underway it increased throughout the afternoon to F4 gusting 5. Although there were a few capsizes in the first race, the increasing wind, and gusts, led to some spectacular reaches, and many more capsizes!
Dave/Caroline in their RS400 won the first race, with Andy/Isabelle in their Mirror 2nd, and Dave in a Laser 3rd. However, rounding the leeward mark the wrong way was Dave/Caroline’s downfall in the next race, and combined with the number of boats falling foul of the increasing gusts, the F15s of Robbie D/Toggle and Rob/TBA were 1st and 2nd respectively in race 2 to finish 2nd and 3rd overall behind winners Andy/Isabelle who took 4th in the 2nd race.
Mark Ninnim Memorial final results
Sunday’s forecast baseline F4 gusting F5-6 at times proved accurate, so it was only some of the hardy asymmetric fleet, and a couple of Teras that considered the 29er a little too risky, that ventured out.
There was plenty of capsizes but hats off to those that stayed upright – Oscar in a Tera, Ian in an OK, and Neil/Archie in RS200. Only three boats took part in the 2nd race, and they all gave up by the 3rd race of the day! Overnight leaders in the asymmetric fleet are Neil/Archie, with Banter/John 2nd, while Oscar leads the slow handicap fleet.
On Monday the wind had eased slightly, and there was a few more racing. Biggest challenge for Pix was – sun cream or rain hat!
With Reekie nursing his sores, Banter reverted to the RS200 with Oscar, and they had some great racing with Pix/Evie, only spoilt by various capsizes – not that they were the only ones to be caught out by some of the slam dunk gusts. Two races back to back enabled an early finish, and avoided the forecast persistent rain showers.
Overall Neil/Archie took the honours in the asymmetric fleet, with Pix/Evie 2nd, and Alex/Ben in their RS400 3rd.
Olivia in ILCA 4 sailed well and won the first race in the handicap fleet but was unable to recover from a capsize before the next start. Dave in ILCA 6 won the next race, and the series.
In the slow handicap fleet, Bean/Oliver had two wins, but James in a Tera sailed well and won the series with three 2nds.