Midweek Tankard 9
Our Wednesday race fleet was supplemented by several enthusiastic young sailors, introduced to us by through their parents and friends. In all, nine boats took to the water in a very useful north-ish wind, force 3-4 and under cloudy but dry conditions.
The start line favoured a port tack start, but Sue and Ethan chose to start on starboard in the hope that this may challenge the other starters. This tactic paid off, as they (Sue, then Ethan) led the other boats across the start line and on to pass Zebra to port en route to West. John/Leila, Ian, Dave, Louise/Colin, Joseph and Rob soon followed. Milo was stalled back from the start line so made a delayed start. John and Dave were together at the first mark (Zebra), but from then on, Dave gradually pulled away for the rest of the race, with Ian, sailing single-handed, closely following John for the rest of the race.
On Lap 2, Ethan managed to overtake Sue, and Joseph managed to pass Rob. But not for long – Rob regained his position in the long run back from Far to Dam Green. Linda, as OOD, shortened the race to 3 laps as the race had spread out the boats into two groups: the leading 2 boats in the Dam Green area whilst four of them were at the far end of the lake. Of these four, Joseph finally got past Louise until he lost this lead of this second fleet to Louise.
Ethan was first to cross the finish line, followed closely by Sue then Dave. It took a further 15 minutes for the rest of the fleet to finish. Sympathies went to Ian, who capsized on gybing round Dam Green just before the final beat to the finish. Although he managed a dry capsize, he was unable to sail his water-logged boat and retired.
- Sue Murray (Laser 4.7)
- John Dabbs/Leila Farmer (Bosun)
- Dave Perrett (Solo)
- Ethan Walker Laser (Radial)
- Joseph Nicholson (Topper)
- Milo Steer (Topper)
- Louise/Colin Witchell (Bosun)
- Robin Spiller (Solo)
Retired: Ian Chatterton
Thanks go to Linda for her work as our OOD.