Although various people seemed to be playing away this weekend, there was still a full complement of racing for numerous members to go at. Shame the wind conditions of Saturday followed through into Sunday. The forecast direction kept getting interrupted by rogue gusts from all sorts of directions. As ever, Robbie D mastered the conditions and pulled out a massive lead with his super lightweight crew Erin to win the race by a handsome margin from Joan and Jack Hardie. Even in the last six or seven minutes of the race, Steve Hunt and Joan Hardie got a breeze that opened up a four minute lead on Scumper and William who had both been close on their tail at the previous mark!
In the F15s, Ian Macpherson with Sally crewing, took the honours from Mike and Kayla. Martyn Stephenson and Steve Hannah get a mention just for continuing to watch how it’s all done from behind!
Pete (or is it Paul?) Bowmer won the GPs from Julian Cruickshank, while Eric Smith out performed Alan Waugh in the Mirrors.
The afternoon racing was devoted to another pennant race which took the fleet around the lake. Although the general wind was blowing in the southern end of the lake with a NW breeze, the sea breeze gusts came and went, and continued to spin around from various directions as they came down from Sale Fell such that after 40+ minutes it was Scumper in his Vareo, William and Elaine in an RS400, Steve and Ruth in a Merlin Rocket, then Mike and Kayla in a F15 in close contention at the leeward mark.
Scumper and Steve took the west shore, while William and Mike too the east shore on the way back. The wind continued to rise and fall, but the west shore route proved best this time. It was to be Steve and Ruth that won the Jimmy Lancaster Memorial Trophy by a small margin from Scumper.
Meanwhile, in the bay, the Juniors were having their own races, the results of which will be brought up to date next week.
Commodore Dave Nicholson gets a mention for being the best dressed OD, wearing a new fathers’ day outfit, complete with shirt and tie. Don’t think it’s a trend that will catch on, and it doesn’t quite come up to the standard of sailing legend EricTwiname who opted to test drive a Laser in a morning suit! (Don’t think he wore the top hat though!)
One of those sailing away was Sam Hall who had two 1sts and a 2nd at West Kirkby Yacht Club in the NW Junior Travellers. While Bass had mediocre winds, West Kirkby had more challenging conditions that kept rescue crews busy but suited Sam. He won a T-shirt and is leading the series.
Toggle and Rory were sailing at Northampton in a Vareo open meeting and clearly had some close racing. Overall Rory was 4th and Toggle 5th