As sailors and the event team started to arrive, there was already a nice ESE breeze straight down the lake from the clubhouse end. Our RO, Paul Plested soon donned the waders and worked with the Commodore to set out a windward leeward course starting at the far end of the lake. Setting a good start line proved to be a bit tricky as the wind was having difficulty on deciding whether it was from the top left or right corner.
After a short briefing, the fleet of 17 RG65’s got started on time in a decent mid to top suit A swing rig breeze, with just a couple of boats using a full sized conventional rig. The day was sailed at a decent but steady pace of 4 races followed by a break for a drink or lunch, with 16 races completed by the time the wind shut down (well actually reversed direction!) at around 16:00.
The day belonged to Alan Bennett sailing an Ivy with 7 wins, followed by Tobi Laux (another Ivy) with four, Graham Elliott (Electronica) with three, then Martin Roberts (Uno) and Bill Culshaw (Ivy) with one each. Aside from these race winners, a number of boats had some good results and even had the lead at some point, but unfortunately never quite made that elusive first place. Chris Elliott had a number of seconds after a difficult start to the day missing the first two races with gear problems. Peter Baldwin also had a good day, but never managed to capitalise on some decent positions mid race.Vernon Appleton and Roger Hopper were also going well with Vernon picking up a second and third during the day and based upon his speed later in the day, may well be better placed tomorrow.
As the full results sheet below will show, Alan Bennett not surprisingly won the day on 25 points, with Tobias Laux second on 32 points and then Graham Elliott in third on 41. It was close for fourth to seventh place with only 6 points separating these 4 boats.
Out thanks go to our RO Paul Plested and his assitant wife Sharon, Joss in the galley for making drinks and some great cookies and also to Paul for some cracking photos.
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