AM: Commodore's Cup 3

Despite light forecast winds, there were just sufficient zephyrs to encourage arriving 
sailors to rig their boats. However, as the clock ticked down towards the midday start 
time, the breeze gradually fell away and the slowly revolving wind turbines peeking 
over the hillside drifted to a complete standstill.  Nevertheless, proving that for some 
club members, hope does indeed spring eternal, a dozen helms persisted and glided 
out onto the lake.  Sadly, once the boats were out on the water, it soon became 
difficult to see any coherent pattern in the dying zephyrs.  Indeed, Jane Anderson, 
who had sailed up to as far as the first mark before the countdown, struggled to get 
back to the startline in time for the gun and was left behind.  Nicky Buckett was also 
the architect of some additional self-imposed problems, leaving the bung out of her 
Laser and therefore taking on water and struggling to get the consequently heavy boat 
to move at all.

As the fleet twisted and turned in slow motion, searching for the breeze, Jane 
Anderson was soon on the move. Despite her late appearance on the line she began 
inching her way inexorably towards the front, taking over from John Duncalf, who 
had made the best initial start.  The only other boat to attempt to match Jane's 
progress was the RS200 of Bob Sampson and Liz Royall.  The rest of the fleet drifted 
grumpily round the first three marks, until impatience at not making any some sort of 
reasonable progress became too much for a couple of helms, so they turned and 
paddled for the pontoon and lunch.  As so often, this was the signal for the breeze to 
make some sort of attempt at blowing from a consistent direction and gradually the 
fleet started to move slowly but purposefully round the course.  By this time, Jane 
Anderson had continued to drift away from the rest and had only a little more distance 
to travel as the Race Officer shortened the course to just one lap.  She was thus first to 
cross the line in a few seconds short of forty minutes, with a gap of a further four 
minutes before the RS200 crossed the line, leaving Jane to be confirmed as winner on 
handicap by a massive margin.  The minor handicap places went to the slower boats at 
the back of the fleet, which in the gradually increasing breeze finished not long after 
most of the faster dinghies, so that John Duncalf came in second on handicap in the 
Topper, with John Buckett a few seconds further back on corrected time in the Otter.  
Bob Sampson and Liz Royall were therefore pushed back to fourth place, with John 
Chandler doing well on his first sail of the season to bring his heavy Bosun into fifth 
on handicap.

Results: 

1st Jane Anderson (Laser)
2nd John Duncalf (Topper)
3rd John Buckett (Otter)
4th Bob Sampson and Liz Royall (RS200)
5th John Chandler (Bosun)
6th Mike Ford (Solo)
7th Roger Heasman (Streaker)
8th Nicky Buckett (Laser),
9th Katie Leveridge (Laser Radial)
10th Emily Veal (Laser Radial)
Simon Veal (Laser), Adeney Pooler and Emily Kinsella (Graduate) rtd

PM: Ladies Cup/Junior Helm/Gosling Shield

The breeze continued to build over lunch, probably reinforced by a sea breeze 
generated by the wall-to-wall sunshine and producing ideal sailing conditions that 
encouraged out a fleet of 16 boats for the afternoon racing, the largest number of the 
season so far.   With the first mark at Inlet, all the helms wanted to be at the Home 
buoy end of the start line, but the fleet got away well, with Paul Whybrow making an 
excellent start in the Solo.  As boats tacked towards the first objective, however, there 
were many calls of 'Starboard' as helms called for right-of-way over port tack 
competitors.  On occasion, the calls weren't enough to prevent some pile-ups as 
groups of dinghies ducked and dived desperately for space at close quarters, 
generating questions afterwards about 'who did what and to whom...'.  At the front of 
the fleet, Jane Anderson had again worked her way clear.  However, Paul Whybrow, 
using the race as preparation for his first Open meeting of the season next weekend, 
was getting his Solo moving effectively and was not far behind Jane in second place.

Other Lasers sailors going well were Jane Chadney in third spot, with Katie Leveridge 
doing exceptionally well to keep pace with Jane, given that she was sailing the 
smaller Laser Radial rig.  By the end of the first lap, Jane Anderson had managed to 
open up a gap of nearly of two minutes over Paul Whybrow, but given the higher 
handicap of the Solo, it was not clear that this was going to be enough.  Katie 
Leveridge was still hanging onto Jane Chadney and they started the second lap almost 
together.  Despite the best efforts of all the helms, the positions in the fleet stayed 
much the same for the latter half of the race.  Jane Anderson stayed in front, but was 
unable to increase the margin of her lead over the Solo, so that despite crossing the 
line first, it was Paul Whybrow who was winner on handicap by a comfortable 
margin.  Katie Leveridge was rewarded for her efforts in staying with larger-sailed 
competitors by taking third on handicap, on an afternoon that saw Lasers take four out 
of the first five places.

Results: 

1st Paul Whybrow (Solo)
2nd Jane Anderson (Laser)
3rd Katie Leveridge (Laser Radial)
4th Jane Chadney (Laser)
5th Nicky Buckett (Laser)
6th Mike Ford (Solo)
7th John Buckett (Otter)
8th Roger Heasman (Streaker)
9th John Duncalf (Topper)
10th John Chandler (Bosun)
11th Liz Royall and Bob Sampson (RS 200)
12th Emily Veal (Laser Radial)
13th Stephanie Heasman (Topper)
14th Vicki Duncalf (Laser Radial)
15th Mary Carter (Laser)
16th Simon Veal and Ellie Kinsella (Laser 16)