22 March Spring Series 3

Well it was more like Spring this morning, a beautiful sunny day with a 9 mph ENE wind. The race team of Keith, Katherine, Alistair and Peter set out in the safety boats for Tektona and established base camp. The first beat was down to 6 followed by a run back to 5, a reach down to 9 and then a run up to 4 and on to 3, round 3 and close hauled to 2 and back through the start line.

There were 21 starters and it was good to see Monica back with us and also the appearance of Frantz in his Contender and Dean & Nick in the Laser 2 and Mark & Ellen in a RS 200. Before getting on the water Steve S and Mike C decided to swap boats for the day. Steve has a Solo of his own so would be in his element, but it was Mike C’s first outing in a Laser.
There was the usual staggered start with William P (Topper) first away and Steve P (505) last away with everyone else at their allotted times in between.
At the end of the first lap William was still leading with Peter S (Byte) 2nd, Monica (Europe) 3rd and Steve S (in Mike C’s Solo) coming up fast in 4th place. Hadey (4.7) was in 5th place with Mike A (Lightning) 6th, Newton & Roz in their Laser 2000 (nice to see you back Roz) 7th and then Nev & Sally (Leader) in 8th.  The first Laser through was Richard S who had just caught Peter R in his Enterprise, then there were the five Lasers of Ken, Jon, Mike T, Mark B and James P being closed down by Ian C (Supernova) who had just passed Mike C (who was trying to get to grips with Steve S’s Laser).Then came the late starters of Dean & Nick, Mark & Ellen, Steve P and Frantz.
Peter S was leading at the end of the second lap and had managed to round all the marks of the course !  Steve S had moved up to 2nd but William was still hanging on to 3rd place with Newton & Roz moving up to 4th  pushing Monica down to 5th. Nev & Sally had moved up one place to 7th, Mark B was up four places to 10th  and Ian C was up five places to 11th. Frantz in his Contender had decided to call it a day.
On the third lap Jon clipped No 5, did his turns and got to 9 without losing a place! Mike A tried to squeeze between Mark B and No 2, but brushed the buoy, did his turns but he lost two places !
On the same lap the boats in the middle of the fleet rounded 9 and the wind completely disappeared and then came up in completely the opposite direction before veering round again to the original direction !
By the end of the third lap Steve S had taken the lead with Peter S 2nd and Newton & Roz 3rd. Ian had now moved through from 11th to 4th with Monica still 5th. Richard S was the leading Laser in 6th followed by the Lasers of Jon, Mark and Ken. Peter R had moved up two places to 11th and Mike T and James P were up three places to 12th and 13th. Steve P had moved up two places to 18th.
Monica decided three laps were enough and joined Frantz on the bank.
At the finish gun Steve S was still in 1st place but Ian had moved up one more place to 2nd with Newton & Roz just pipping Richard for 3rd by about half a boat length. Peter S was 5th and Jon C 6th.   
Ken and Mark had scrapped all race and Ken just managed to lead Mark at the gun to finish in 7th.
Steve P had moved up two more places but could not quite catch Hadey ahead of him. William managed to stay ahead of Dean & Nick and Mark & Ellen.
Final Positions were 1st Steve S (Solo); 2nd Ian C (Supernova), 3rd Newton & Roz (Laser 2000), which must be the first time this year a Laser has not been in the first three !