Spring Series 5 1st April 2018

April 1st, but no joke this morning as it was a very light wind coming from a Northerly direction, which made setting the start line a bit tricky. Rick rose to the occasion armed with his newly acquired knowledge from the recent race management course. First beat was to X, then 9, 2, 4, 5, 8 and back through the start.

Pursuit Race
There were 11 takers for the first race and early starter Chris H (Comet) was still ahead at the end of the lap, Fellow Comet sailor Nev was hanging on to 4th place having been caught and passed by Newton & Ellen (RS200) and Steve S (Aero). James (Laser) was just behind Nev, but being rapidly caught by last man away Simon B (Blaze). William (Radial) was still ahead of the Lasers of Jon, Dave I, Jeremy with Bill (K1) and Adrian (Vago) bringing up the rear of the fleet.
At the gun the order was –
1st Newton & Ellen; 2nd Simon; 3rd Chris H; 4th Steve S; 5th James; 6th Jon

Handicap Race
With the wind dropping further Rick wisely shortened the course by taking out 2 and 4. Chris H, James, William, Jon, and Dave I decided they would be better off sitting still on the bank rather than sitting still on the water! However Mark (Laser) decided to give it a go, so there were 8 starters for this race.
First back through the line was Simon B some way ahead of Ellen & Newton, who were only just ahead of Steve and James. Then there was quite a gap back to Bill and another gap back to Adrian and then further back Nev and Jeremy crossed the line virtually together.
The only change in position on the second lap was Jeremy getting past Nev and they both received the gun at the end of the lap.
So at the end of the third and last lap there were only five finishers as Simon had run out of puff and dropped out. These five had maintained station so the finishing order was –
1st Ellen & Newton; 2nd Steve S; 3rd Mark; 4th Bill; 5th Adrian

On handicap the order of the first four remains the same, but Nev and Jeremy move up to 5th and 6th.

Thanks to Rick and the small OOD Team of Alistair S, Hugh and Ian B.