Big shifts in a strengthening breeze for a fleet of nearly 100 boats

Despite being a full time sailor for nearly a decade Luke Patience, guest speaker at tonight's SailRacer end of year party, told how "every time I step in a boat I learn something" - today how much effort was needed to pull the kicker on a Fireball.

Multi Endeavour champion Nick Craig took the first of 3 handicap races whilst Luke found his feet with crew Richard Anderton.  By race 3 Luke was in bullet-taking form and lies second overnight to Nathan Batchelor and Sam Pascoe, also sailing a Fireball.  Clive and Alex Everest won the second race in their Cherub.

Race 1 was rarely trapeezing conditions and the moths were struggling to foil.  The split put the Merlin Rockets as the fastest in the slow fleet but it was Ann Jackson in her Enterprise and the RS200s that led the slow fleet to the windward mark.  Near the end of the first race the breeze shifted to the right which heralded the forecast build to about 12-15kn which stayed, but never truly settled, for the rest of the afternoon.   Cold and a few breakages in the gusty conditions took its toll on a few of the fleet during the second and third races but Barry Peters and his team got 3 good races in.  The fast fleet were scheduled to start first and get away clear of the slows but recalls in the first 2 races put them to the back of the start sequence.  Barry's black flag for the start of the 3rd race ensured better behaviour and both fleets got away cleanly.

14/12/2013 22:01