Gillette Series 21 and last – 4th September 2019

It was a bit cooler tonight with a brisk West wind 13- 15 mph with stronger gusts coming through.

Karen, Rick and Mike To opted for Radial rigs and Nigel decided to take out a Topper instead of his Laser.

There were 14 starters and Simon B (Blaze) was first back across the line then Ellen and Karen came through close together with Jamie about 20 seconds later and all of these were sailing Lasers. Newton (Solo) crossed in 5^th place just ahead of Dean & Nick (Vago) followed by Ralph, Richard H and Rick in Lasers and grouped closely together. 30 seconds later Paul H (Supernova) and Mike Tr (Laser) crossed the line together battling for 10^th place not far ahead of Mike To in Radial rig Laser and Thomas in a full rig Laser with Nigel bringing up the rear of the fleet in his Topper.

On the second lap Simon had increased his lead to three minutes over Ellen and Karen, but there was no change in the order of the first seven boats. Rick and Mike Tr crossed the line together in joint   8^th, but there were no other movers behind them.

On the third lap there was an unexpected change at the front when Simon retired as he had sailed the wrong course (he’s not the only one who did not know the course!) This obviously moved everyone up a place, but Ralph improved on that by moving up three places to 4^th spot with Newton still 5^th and Rick up two places to 6^th. Mike To also retired and Nigel received the finish gun at the end of the lap.

No change in the order of the first three as they finished the fourth and last lap. Mike Tr made up three places and just pipped Ralph for 4^th place (sweet revenge for last week when Ralph did the same to him!) In moving up to 4^th Mike also passed Rick and Newton and to make matters worse for Rick he was also caught by Dean & Nick and Richard H.

The final order on the water was – 1^st Ellen; 2^nd Karen; 3^rd Jamie; 4^th Mike Tr; 5^th Ralph; 6^th Newton

On corrected time the only change is Newton moving up to 3^rd place pushing the rest down a place.

Thanks to Steve S and the OOD Team of Andrew S, Ben E, Cliff P, Ken P and Leon S.

This was the last race of the series and Jemima in her Opppie was the overall winner with Karen in 2^nd and Newton 3^rd place. Congratulations to them all.