Gillette Series 20 – 29th August 2018

It was quite a pleasant evening with a light wind, about 8 mph, from the NW and Julian B elected to use a Tektona start.

There were 17 starters including a family trio of young sailors Emily and Ollie in Toppers and Phoebe in an Oppie.
First back through the line was Newton (Solo) followed by Hugh (Laser) and Steve S in another Solo and these three maintained the same positions for the whole of the five laps of the race!
On the first lap Richard H came through in 4th place but he was down to 10th by the second lap and then retired so he was obviously having a problem with something! Paul H (Laser) was 5th followed by Dean & Nick (Vago), Sally & Mike C (Leader) and Rick (Laser). Mike A (Lightning) and Dave P (National 12 s/h) crossed the line together just in front of Jeremy (Laser) about one minute ahead of Curtis (Laser) and Ron (Mirror). After a bit of a gap Bill turned up in his K1, followed later by Emily leading Ollie and Phoebe at the rear of the fleet. Phoebe received the gun at the end of her first lap.

On the second lap Dave P moved up to 4th and Rick up to 5th with Dean & Nick still in 6th place, Paul H was down to 7th,but Jeremy was up three places to 8th.

On the third lap there was no change in the first four positions but Dean & Nick had moved up to 5th by passing Rick and there had been some good mid-fleet battles which had not resulted in any place changes by the end of the lap. At the end of the lap Emily and Ollie received the finish gun and Curtis retired.

Lap four saw Rick repassing Dean & Nick to reclaim 5th place and Sally & Mike gained three places to move up to 7th with Paul H 8th and Jeremy 9th. Further back Bill had caught and passed Ron and they both received the gun at the end of the lap.

Only one change in position on the last lap as Mike A passed Jeremy, who gets the lantern rouge tonight! The final order on the water was –
1st Newton; 2nd Hugh; 3rd Steve S; 4th Dave P; 5th Rick; 6th Dean & Nick

On handicap the first three retain their positions, but one-lap-less Ron moves up to 4th place pushing Dave P down to 5th with Mike A up to 6th.

Thanks to Julian B and to the OOD Team (sorry – names not on the race sheet, but should have been Sophie, Mark P, Julian W, Gavin and Nick T)