Cobley Series 1 – 2nd September 2018

After the deluge of last Sunday we were back to warm sunny weather with light winds. Julian B used a Committee Boat start out towards No 5 with a start line parallel to the buoy line. With a SSE wind from nothing to about 4 mph he set the first “beat” to 8 then X (on the buoy line between 5 and 6), 5 and back through the start.

Pursuit Race
Only eight starters this morning probably due to the lack of wind, although we did get two laps in due to the judicious short course. The only early starter was Ron in his Mirror and not surprisingly he was still in the lead at the end of the first lap with Rhys in a full rig Laser in 2nd place. (this may have been Rhys’ first race in a full rig, so he is rapidly following in brother Will’s wake!).
Ron was hoping that the wind did not increase, but Newton & Ellen caught a nice little puff, which worried him but turned out to be too brief to enable them to catch him. At the gun the order was –
1st Ron-Mirror; 2nd Newton & Ellen-RS200; 3rd Mike A-Lightning; 4th Richard S-Laser; 5th Rhys-Laser; 6th Dean & Nick-Vago; 7th Ralph-Laser; 8th William B-Laser

Handicap Race
A little more wind arrived for the second race, about 5-8mph from the SW, so Julian swung the start line round and the course was changed to 4, 9, X and back through the start.

At the end of the first lap Ellen & Newton led by quite a distance from Richard S who was just ahead of Ralph. Mike A and Rhys came through close together in 4th and 5th with Ron about 30 seconds back in 6th place just ahead of William B and Dean & Nick.

On the second lap there was no change in the two leaders. William B had moved up to 3rd with Mike A 4th and Ralph 5th, but these three were very close with Rhys slightly further back. Behind them Dean & Nick had passed Ron.

At the finish Ellen & Newton crossed the line well ahead of Richard and Ralph was back up to 3rd. Final positions on the water were –
1st Ellen & Newton; 2nd Richard S; 3rd Ralph; 4th Mike A; 5th William B; 6th Rhys;
7th Dean & Nick; 8th Ron (on the same lap!)

On handicap the first three are safe but as usual Ron moves up the leader board to 4th spot pushing Mike and William down a place.

Thanks to Julian B and the OOD Team of Mike Tr, Rick and Sally.