Gillette 5 11th May
With a NW wind, about 7 mph, Mark B set a good course with an Island Start using Xp, 5p, 2s, 4s and back through the start, which ensured that there were no dead spots in spite of the light wind.
There were 15 starters and Karen (Laser) got a cracking start and led at the end of the first lap, but not by much from Newton (Solo). Curtis (Laser) came through in 3rd some way ahead of the rest of the fleet who were having a real tussle and this continued the whole of the race with places changing considerably lap by lap. At the back of the fleet there was a good Topper battle between Edward, Joe and William and Jemima was gamely bringing up the rear in her Oppie and she received the finish gun at the end of the lap.
The first three were unchanged at the end of the second lap and there was a large gap back to the rest who were led by Chris A (Solo) who had moved up from 11th to 4th with Richard H (Laser) 5th, Mike A (Lightning) 6th, Hugh & Joachim (Leader) 7th, Ellen (Radial) 8th, Paul H (Supernova) 9th, Dean & Nick (Vago) 10th and Mike T (Laser) 11th, but you could throw a blanket over all of them. Edward still led the Topper Trio, but William had managed to get past Joe.
The third lap saw no change at the front but Richard H had come up to 4th and was pulling out a slight lead on the rest of the pack. Paul H was up three places to 6th, Ellen was up one place to 7th and Mike T up three places to 8th. The double handers were having a good battle with Hugh & Joachim just holding off Dean & Nick. The Toppers received the gun at the end of this lap and William had managed to get past Edward with Joe coming in third.
On the fourth and last lap there was no change in position amongst the first eight boats, but Chris A had made back two places to 9th and Dean & Nick had managed to get past Hugh & Joachim.
The final positons on the water were –
1st Karen; 2nd Newton; 3rd Curtis; 4th Richard H; 5th Mike A; 6th Paul H.
On handicap Newton should take the win from Karen and Mike A leapfrog Richard to take 4th and Ellen to take 6th from Paul.
Thanks to Mark B and the OOD team of Adrian, Andy, Jeremy, Martin and Rick.
Look out for the photo of Karen giving Jemima a tow back to shore at the end of the race – that’s the girls for you -not like the blokes racing back to try and get first out of the water !