The wind was SE although there wasn’t too much of it. During rigging AJ was telling everyone that the OD should send them down the Lake. After a barrage of this I told him that I would set two courses with the lower one, just for him, being AJ12 (No return mark!). He concentrated on the GP after that!
We had 17 boats out but only 12 came to the line. These included Martin & Alison Overend who were late and at the wrong end so decided that some cruising was better than being last The beat was 1-A with B as the wing mark. The line had heavy port bias which Joan & Jack in the GP and Neil in his Laser picked up and these two battled to be leading boat throughout the first lap with the Laser of Terry Hall third.
Although the wind was dying, only 20 minutes had passed so most were sent for a second lap. The exceptions were the last two on the water who were asked if they wanted to finish the first time around. Bob Gate in his Radial gamely refused saying he wanted to catch the Pico, but Steve and Simon in the 2000 were shortened.
Going into B the wind disappeared and virtually all the fleet were in drift mode. Was there a flag N on the Bates the OD wondered? But then it kicked in again. Jack hoisted the kite which didn’t seem to work as Neil went zooming by – well, comparatively speaking! And Tony was working his light weather magic in the Solo with shoulders over the lee gunwale and boots out to port. He rounded the final mark a length behind and closing. But Neil held on to be first on the water by 3 seconds.
Results showed the effect of the fleet being so bunched up. John in the Pico had taken PH from Richard’s Solo by over 3 minutes on corrected time with Hazel’s Radial third. Not only that, but the Pico’s boat handicap advantage had allowed it to finish first on FH well ahead of Tony and Joan.