Gillette Series 6 – 13th July 2022

Tonight was lovely and sunny with a 5-7 mph NNW wind. SOOD Ron set the first mark as 6, then 9, 5, C (just behind the line) and back through the start.

The fist beat was quite tricky because to approach the mark on starboard tack you had to be careful not to go too far into the lee of the trees. There were 15 starters (but only 12 signed the Declaration Sheet – come on guys, you run the risk of not being included in the runners and riders!).

Jess/Laser was fist back across the line followed closely by Chris H/Comet , Rhys/Laser, Newton & Sam/RS200 and Emily/Radial. These first six were pretty close together crossing at about 10 second intervals. About one minute later MikeT/Comet crossed in 7th place and 40 seconds behind him came another close group consisting of Alessandro & Matt/470, Mark/Laser, Aileen/Comet and Mike A/Lightning. Then there was a gap before Paul H and Rick in Lasers and Sally/Comet came through, slightly ahead of Cecilia in her Laser (nice to see you racing again Cecilia).  

Lap 2

At the end of this lap Jess was still leading, but Newton & Sam had moved up to 2nd place by overtaking Chris and Karen was up to 4th passing Rhys. Emily maintained her 6th place but had slipped back from the leading five and was now in a battle with Mike T. Mark had passed Alessandro & Matt to move up to 8th and behind them Aileen was sailing serenely along in her own patch of water. Paul H also gained a place by passing Mike A. Rick also passed Mike A, but then gave the place back to him when he became too closely acquainted with No 9! Sally and Cecilia received the hooter at the end of this lap.

Lap 3

No change in position for the first five finishers, but Mike T had passed Emily to cross in 6th place and there were no other changes.

The order on the water was – 1st Jess; 2nd Newton & Sam; 3rd Chris H; 4th Karen; 5th Rhys; 6th Mike T

On corrected time this changes to – 1st Chris/Comet; 2nd Mike T/Comet; 3rd Jess/Laser; 4th Newton & Sam/RS200; 5th Emily/Radial; 6th Karen/Laser.

Thanks to SOOD Ron and the race team of Andrew Steele, Anthony & Puja Sharma McLachlan and Steve & Terry Hutton.

Apologies to the unidentified young man from last week, who was sailing a Pico. Welcome to the racing fleet Steve Chege and don’t forget to sign in.