AM: Cup Race 2

In a brisk easterly wind, there was stiff competition to be first away and the 
fleet was crowding the starting line as the horn sounded for the midday race: 
Vicki Duncalf was there just a bit too quickly and had to circle back and 
restart.  John Chandler got a good line coming to the dogleg around the Dam 
green buoy on starboard and caused mayhem by forcing several other boats on port 
to tack away, with Bob Sampson performing an elegant last-minute pirouette in 
the RS200 to avoid collision.  In the few yards to the turning mark at Dam Red 
buoy, Bob had managed a near-instant recovery, however, and was up in the top 
three, with Jane Anderson making a trademark immaculate start and with Steve 
Axford also going well in the Laser Radial.  As the race unfolded, Steve Axford 
and Bob disputed the lead, with Steve finally putting daylight between them on 
the second lap on the broad reach up to Pinky.  After her excellent start, Jane 
Anderson's Topper was slowly overhauled by some of the faster boats behind her 
but was clearly always going to be in contention on handicap.
Further back in the fleet there was lots of incident to keep both helms and 
spectators on their toes.  John Chandler's tiller extension 'came off in his 
hand' to his considerable consternation but he battled on, as did Mary Carter, 
whose mast top section came loose and left her with a sail looking rather like 
Nora Batty's wrinkled stockings.  Emily Veal was overpowered in her Topper and 
capsized, but came up smiling and went on, but when John Savage's Cadet threw 
him out, it inverted and filled with water and he had to retire.  By the finish, 
Steve Axford had pulled out a 34 second lead over Bob Sampson, but as the 
pundits predicted, Jane Anderson won by a handsome margin on handicap, with only 
Steve in second place avoiding a Topper whitewash, with John and Vicki Duncalf 
bringing their craft into third and fourth respectively.


Results: 

1st Jane Anderson (Topper)
2nd Steve Axford (Laser Radial)
3rd John Duncalf (Topper)
4th Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
5th Bob Sampson and Jane Chadney (RS200)
6th Simon Veal (Laser)
7th John Chandler and John Buckett (Bosun)
8th Emily Veal (Topper)
9th Mary Carter (Laser 4.7)
John Savage (Cadet) rtd

PM: Ladies/Junior Helm and Gosling Shield 1 

With a course change to give just a single Dam buoy to round, the fleet were 
faced with just a short beat to the first mark.  Even in this short distance, it 
was the two fastest boats on the water that got their first, with the RS200 and 
Scorpion rounding in first and second.  Bob was there first and crew Jane 
Chadney had the asymmetric flying as they rounded the mark onto the broad reach 
towards the Inlet mark, whilst close behind Steve Axford was having to work hard 
with the conventional spinnaker to get Paul Whybrow's Scorpion motoring.  These 
two boats showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet and they were 
still neck-and-neck as they coming down from West mark to the dam on the second 
lap.  Behind, Jane Anderson again had her Topper sailing way above handicap in 
third place on the first lap.  Even by the second lap, out of the faster boats 
behind her, only Simon Veal had managed to overtake.  Sailing a full-rig Laser, 
Simon was having to work quite hard on a day with the wind to Force 4 and above, 
but recovered from heading the wrong way at the first mark to pick up impressive 
speed on some of the reaches.  Also working hard was Katie Leveridge, who after 
the thrills of the last night of her theatre performance, went for an adrenaline 
rush of another kind by taking out the thoroughbred RS Vision dinghy and managed 
to pilot it safely round the course, despite being seriously underballasted with 
lightweight Emily as crew.
At the front, the Scorpion had pulled away from the RS200 and despite capsizing 
on the third lap which allowed Bob to catch up, pulled away again and crossed 
the line forty seconds ahead.  Once again, however, it was the slower Toppers 
who claimed the day, with Jane Anderson and John Duncalf claiming first and 
second and pushing Paul and Bob back into third and fourth.

Results:

1st Jane Anderson (Topper)
2nd John Duncalf (Topper)
3rd Paul Whybrow and Steve Axford (Scorpion)
4th Bob Sampson and Jane Chadney (RS 200)
5th Simon Veal (Laser)
6th John Chandler and Mike Ford (Bosun)
7th Vicki Duncalf (Topper)
8th Mary Carter (Laser 4.7)
9th John Buckett (Otter)
10th Katie Leveridge and Emily Veal (RS Vision)