With only one race on Wednesday, in order to achieve the advertised programme, Howard Steavenson event PRO called for three races (in a wind varying from 4 to 10 knots) for the Squib fleet today at the UK British National Championships at the Royal Forth Yacht Club.
The wind was similar to yesterday, with one crew member on the windward deck most of the time. That wind came from the south west and was quite steady for periods of up to twenty minutes and then became shifty again.
The 5th race started at 11.00 hrs, and Micky Wright and Alex Porteous in ‘Spoof’ took an early lead from Dick Batt and Pete Richards in ‘Squib’ and Mark Bradshaw and Robin Jarvis in ‘Magic Flute’. A lap later the order was ‘Magic Flute’ ‘Spoof’ and ‘RicO’Shea’. It was intended that the race would be four laps but after one and a half hours it was reduced to three windward-leeward laps. ‘Squib’ won from ‘Spoof’ and ‘Magic Flute’.
The 6th race of the series followed immediately afterwards at 12.45. This time the wind shifts penalised all the Squibs wo headed out towards the middle of the Firth of Forth. At the first windward mark the order was ‘Magic Flute’ and ‘Femme Fatale’ who immediately suffered a spinnaker pole issue and fell back. At the leeward mark it was ‘Magic Flute’, Mike Budd and Hark Thompson in ‘Harry VI’ and Gerard Dyson and Tony Saltonstall in ‘Alchemy’. As before, it was difficult to hold positions on the race course. At the bottom of the second run, the order was ‘Harry VI’, Patrick Wilton and Mike Taylor in ‘Crossfire’ and Malcolm Hutchings and Andy Carley in ‘Lady Penelope.’ The fat lady had not sung yet! At the finish the order was ‘Harry VI’, Will Davies and Kevan Gill in ‘Willpower’ and Mike Hughes and Mike Hughes and Gary Catterall in ‘Alexa’ who found a private breeze along the Leith shore.
The 7th race of the series started at 14:55. At this stage most competitors saw the advantage of heading towards the shore. ‘RicO’Shea’ took an early lead from ‘Spoof’ and Malcolm Blackburn and Steve Allso in ‘Moonstone’. At the end of the second lap the order of the leaders remained unaltered. The challenge for ‘RicO’Shea’ was this: Sail to the favoured shore or cover ‘Spoof’ who had headed out to the middle of the Forth. Others headed inshore and they needed to be covered. So, ‘RicO’Shea’ held a loose cover on everybody. Did this work? At the leeward finish the order was ‘Spoof’, ‘RicO’Shea’ and ‘Moonstone’.
Overall ‘Spoof’ holds a modest lead from ‘RicO’Shea’ and ‘Willpower.’ Racing concludes on Friday.
