There are over thirty boats entered with over 20 of them Flying Fifteens, quiet an impressive turnout leading some to conclude that maybe we should be sailing more in the winter when there are less distractions!
After four races and one discard Green/Doorly lead the way along with McCambridge/Murphy with Poole/Marsden in third place. There have been plenty of thrills and spills and PRO Ian Mathews and his team have had their work cut out to keep things running smoothly but smooth it has been with excellent courses and racing.
The first week was cancelled due to light winds and on week 2 we just got one race in between squalls of 30 plus knots! This became survival and the PRO took the sensible and correct options of cancelling the remaining races. In Race 1 the lead changed a few times with Crummy Burgess leading at the final weather mark but hit it allowing Green to nip in and take the gun on a shortened course. Dooley/Hickey were second with McCambridge/Murphy third. Some of the crews had plenty of practice bailing out but all survived!
Race 2 took place on Sunday on a sunny day in a nice force 3 in west/south west shifty winds with the tide coming in. The fleet were a bit over eager and eventually after a couple of general recalls the black flag came out, this still didn't stop a number of boats including Crummy, Dumpleton, Sherry and O'Sullivan been over! Coleman/Quinn lead from McCambridge/Murphy followed closely by Green and Poole. McCambridge got the lead on lap two and held it comfortably to take the gun Green had moved into second place but approaching the committee boat got a sudden lift but couldn't release the main and was heading to weather of the committee boat, the racing was so close that after ducking back down and narrowly missing the committee boat, three boats had nipped in. Coleman was second with Murphy third and Poole fourth.
Race 2, boats got off at first time of asking Crummy lead from from Dumpleton followed closely by Doyle and Poole and McCambridge with Green back in the pack. It was nip tuck all the way with Dumpleton getting the lead at the final mark to take the gun, Crummy was second, Poole third and McCambridge fourth.
Race 3, again general recalls were the order of the day, the black flag was brought out again. Green lead at the weather mark followed by Gavin Doyle and there was a mad scramble at the weather mark with some boats totally illegally coming in on port causing havoc and ruining other peoples racing – this needs to stop, rules must be obeyed! Green was sailing with a broken tiller since race one and tacking was difficult, Doyle took advantage of this and took the lead on the last beat, Crummy had his own private wind on the last run over on the right and moved into second place with Green limping over the line in third after an eventful day. There was plenty of incidents with great racing including the usual mid fleet battles also new fleet members Robin and Susan got stuck into the racing and completed all races- an achievement in itself! We all look forward to two more races next Sunday.
