Cobley Series 4 2nd October
Another Sunday with no designated SOOD, but John W stepped up to the plate.
The wind was fairly light about 8 mph from the NNW, but the strength and direction varied throughout the morning. The first mark was set as X (just South of No 6) then 1s, 5s, 8s and back through the start.
Pursuit Race
There were 24 starters this morning and they were led off by Gordon in his Mirror followed later by the Toppers of Joe and William. As usual with a light wind there was considerable bunching at the marks, although the leaders managed to get away at the front.
When the finish gun went it was difficult to judge the positions in the latter half of the fleet as it had split into two groups converging on the next mark (which happened to be 5), one group was coming in from the direction of 4 and the other from the direction of 1.
The final leading positions were –
1st Ellen & Newton; 2nd Karen; 3rd Richard S; 4th Mark B; 5th Nev; 6th Steve S
Handicap Race
Gordon went for his usual cup of tea leaving 23 starters for the second race.
Karen (Laser) got a flyer and was well ahead at the end of the first lap and remained so for all three laps of the race, so the battle was only on for the remaining places. The leading contenders were Mark B, James P, Richard S and Steve S in Lasers and Newton & Ellen and Sylvia & Peter in RS200s.
By the second lap Mark was in 2nd place followed by Richard, Steve, James and Sylvia & Peter. Behind these there was a good scrap amongst the Leaders with Nev in 7th ahead of Sally & Stuart in 8th and Dave & Ann 10th. Curtis (Radial) was just behind Dave & Ann, but he was involved in a really close tussle with Alistair (Laser), Gareth (Laser) Hadey (Radial) and Chris H (Comet).There was another good battle between the Vagos of Dean & Nick and Adrian. Initially Dean & Nick were ahead but Adrian just managed to cross the line ahead of them on this lap. At the back of the fleet William and Joe in their Toppers were just managing to stay ahead of Milo & James (Laser II).
Newton & Ellen retired with a gear failure.
At the end of the third and last lap Richard had passed Mark to move up to 2nd but there was no change in position with the next 7 boats. Dave & Ann managed to pass Rod (Laser) to take 9th, Mike A (Laser) moved up four places to 11th with Gareth gaining a place to 12th, Dean & Nick gained four places to move to 15th .Chris H (Comet) and Rick (Laser) both gained a place as did Milo & James by splitting the Toppers of William and Joe.
The final positions on the water were –
1st Karen; 2nd Richard S; 3rd Mark B; 4th Steve S; 5th James; 6th Sylvia & Peter
On handicap Nev should overtake Sylvia & Peter for 6th place
Thanks to John W and the OOD Team which may have included Keith H, Stephen G, Jayne H and Simon T (names not recorded on racer sheets!)