Some blustery conditions on Saturday morning eased to leave near champagne racing conditions in the (slightly) warmer weather with sunny intervals. Today’s racing is for the final weekend series of the championship season, but as the winners have already been determined, numbers on the water were lighter than usual.
Dave Lawson led Val Bell in both GP races, but they shared their crews with Ladies v Gents in the second race.
Steve/Ruth led the handicap fleet in the first race taking 1st on handicap with Jim/Poppy 2nd. In the next race, Steve took the lead but failed to notice that nobody was following him up the 2nd beat because the course had changed! By the time he realised three boats had got away, and he finished 4th with Scumper 1st and Jim taking another 2nd. Bob had similar problems following the course after the one he’d written down had been scuffed off.
In the slow handicap fleet, Mik in his Mirror won the first race, but in the next race there was a dead heat with Paul in a Topper.
Sunday stayed dry with another mild southerly breeze, but it didn’t encourage any more on to the water. With no GPs sailing, the Stables Prize goes to Saturday’s overnight leader Dave and Lynn Lawson, who opted to try their hand in the handicap fleet and give Scumper a run for his money, which they did very successfully as he was unable to break far enough ahead, and they won race 3 on handicap. Joanie had had enough sailing for the weekend, so Tog retreated to the Solo only for the gooseneck to break soon after starting.
After lunch the wind eased slightly, but results on handicap were consistent with a finishing order of Scumper, Dave, and Tog. The trophy goes to Scumper, with Tog (aided by Joanie) 2nd and Dave/Lynn 3rd.
Paul Gannon won races 3 and 4 with John Roberts 2nd. Although the positions were reversed in the final race, Paul had sufficient good results to win the trophy.
Congratulations go out to Vice Commodore Naomi Smith and husband Phil on the birth of their daughter Lucy, a brother for Oliver.
Congratulations go to another Smith, Naomi’s brother in law Andy after his stirling performance with Phil Hodgkins at Derwent Reservoir over the weekend winning all races to win the GP14 Northern championship!