26 July Summer Series 7

Before the race it was throwing it down with rain and there was no wind ! As a result there were only four takers for the Pursuit Race. Just before the start the wind did start to rise to 5 – 8 mph from a westerly direction, but it kept rising and falling and changing direction all through the morning.
 
John W set a fairly short course in the difficult conditions, 8, 5, 9, 6 and back through the start. There were three Lasers out, David C, Mike A, Steve P and then Adrian in his Vago. The only exciting point of the race was at the first mark 8, when all four boats arrived at the same time. The wind round this mark was very tricky and kept swinging around. After that they got stretched out and there were no changes in position right to the finish gun.
 
The wind got up before the Handicap Race to about 12 – 13mph and roughly from the same direction, but quite gusty, so Jon decided to join in the fun. John W tweaked the course to 9, 4, 2, 6 and back through the start line.
Mike A managed a double capsize on the first lap after cleating in his main sheet and leaning over the back of his Laser to clear weed from the rudder ! (not a clever thing to do in gusty conditions!)
First back through the line was David C followed by Jon, Steve P and then Adrian with Mike playing catch-up at the back.
At the end of the second lap Jon was just ahead of David and Mike had managed to catch Adrian.
Jon increased his lead on the third lap when David capsized just after crossing the start line, but there were no changes in position behind them.
On the last lap there were no further changes in position, Steve P did capsize after rounding 2 on the last lap but got going again quite quickly, so Mike was unable to catch him.
Final positions were 1st Jon; 2nd David; 3rd Steve; 4th Mike; 5th Adrian
 
Thanks to John W and the OOD Team Phil M and Jessica W.