5th July Gillette Series Race 12
A very hot sunny evening with initially very little wind, but Newton managed to set a course which captured the available wind, which eventually did get up to about 8 mph from the NE. He used a Committee Boat start in the vicinity of Tektona but slightly further down the lake and the first mark was X (about level with No 8 but in the middle of the lake) then 5p, 9s, 4p, Op ( slightly down from No 2 but further towards the middle of the lake) and back through the start.
There were 17 starters and Ellen (Laser) was first back through the start line followed by the Solos of Chris A and Julian W and these three had opened up a useful lead. About a minute later Chris H (Comet) came through with Mike A (Lightning) not far behind him, but being caught rapidly by Karen (Laser). Then James P was next in his Laser with Bea on the foredeck giving him instructions and also cajoling William who was a couple of boats back from them. Close behind James were Sally & Stuart (Leader) and Mike C (single handed in his Wanderer) and then came William who was trying to ignore his sister’s “helpful” comments. There was then quite a gap before Nick & Dean (Vago) came through the line and they were well ahead of Ed and Rhys (Feva), Chris & Carol (420) and Jeremy (Laser). Bringing up the rear of the fleet were Jemima (Oppie), Chris S (Laser) and Paul H (Supernova).
On the second lap the first three boats maintained their lead, but Karen had got past Chris H to move up to 4th. Sally & Stuart, Nick & Dean and Chris & Carol all gained two places to move to 6th, 9th and 11th respectively. Jeremy also gained one place and Paul H gained two places, but Chris S decided to retire. With the wind starting to drop Jeremy, Jemima and Paul H all received the finish gun at the end of the lap.
During the last lap the wind dropped even more, but Ellen finished well ahead of everyone else. Karen had gained another place to move up to 2nd place pushing Chris A down to 3rd, who just managed to beat Mike A across the line. Julian W who had been holding 3rd place sailed straight into a patch of weed and stopped dead, but he did manage to extricate himself to finish in 5thplace. All the boats behind him were unlucky as they got caught by the dropping wind and fell back. Chris H who had been battling for 4th place lost six minutes in the last half of the lap to finish 6th, but Nick & Dean did gain another two places to finish in 7th position.
The final positons on the water were –
1st Ellen; 2nd Karen; 3rd Chris A: 4th Mike A; 5th Julian w; 6th Chris H
On handicap Mike should move up to 1st place with Ellen 2nd, Chris A 3rd, Julian 4th, Karen 5th and Jemima 6th.
Thanks to Newton and the OOD Team of Bob H, Matt M and Mike T