Spring Series 9 – 15th May 2022

With a NE wind 9-12mph, SOOD James P used a Committee Boat start with a course of A, 5, 9, 4, 2, 3 and back through the start.

Pursuit Race

There were 22 starters and it was good to see the Sadler family, Dan, Becks, Frances and William out in force again.

At the end of the first lap the early starting Comet trio of Aileen, Chris H and Sally were leading, with Dave & Ann/Leader and Karen/Laser crossing the line together in 4th place. Chris K and Darren in Lasers were up to 5th and 6th just in front of another early starter, Ron in his Mirror.

At the gun the order was – 1st Aileen; 2nd Chris H; 3rd Chris K; 4th Darren; 5th Karen; 6th Richard S; 7th Dave & Ann; 8th Thomas.

Handicap Race

With a 45⁰ wind shift, James had to raid the buoy locker and set a new course for the second race of the day.

Karen/Laser was first back across the line with Richard S/Laser not far behind her in 2nd place. Over a minute elapsed before Ralph in another Laser came through just ahead of Alessandro & Mike T/470, who were closely followed by Ed/Aero battling for 4th place. Then behind them there was a steady stream of closely placed boats down to 13th position,  Thomas/Radial, Will P/Radial, Darren/Laser, Chris K/Laser, Dave & Ann/Leader; Adrian/Laser, Chris H/Comet and Alistair/Laser with not enough room to swing a cat between them (the cat being the “nine tails” variety not the “pussy” variety!). Then to the relief of the race team there was a break of a minute before Nigel/Laser and Aileen/Comet came along having their own little competition.  Two minutes later another pair, Ron/Mirror and Sally/Comet came through together (no – this is not Noah’s Ark) and they were followed one minute later by an epic battle at the back of the fleet involving the Sadler family in Picos and Toppers and Paul W in his Morbic pleased to have the company.

Lap 2

Karen had eased away from Richard S, who in turn eased away from Ralph with Alessandro & Mike still in 4th place, but Darren had moved up three places to 5th. Chris K and Dave & Ann gained two places to move up to 7th and 8th places with Adrian up one to 10th and Alistair up two to 11th, bit it was still very close in this pack of boats.

Further back Sally gained a place by passing Ron.

Paul W was now leading the battle at the back with Frances leading from William and Becks ahead of Dan and they all received the gun at the end of this lap.

Lap 3

Some dramatic changes at the end of this last lap with Karen crossing well ahead of everyone, but Chris K took 2nd place just 10 seconds ahead of Darren in 3rd, which pushed everyone who had been in front of them down two places.

The only other movers up the order on this lap were Will P and Chris H both regaining one place.

The finishing order on the water was – 1st Karen; 2nd Chris K; 3rd Darren; 4th Richard S; 5th Ralph; 6th Alessandro & Mike T; 7th Ed; 8th Dave & Ann.

On corrected time the final order becomes – 1st Karen ;2nd Chris H; 3rd Ed; 4th Dave & Ann; 5th Thomas; 6th Chris K

Thanks to SOOD James P and the race team of Gary Wakefield, Jorge Bernal, Larry Stanton, Mike Caton and Peter Strobel.