14 sailors turned up on a bright sunny day to what appeared to be a promising day day sailing.  However, that was really as good as it got, with the conditions declining as the afternoon wore on.  

We were lucky to get in 7 races, and everyone agreed that was it – we pulled our boats in; then the nor’easter kicked in… isn’t that the way!

The forecast turned out to be fairly close to the mark… we started with a wind from the SW but by the time the buoys went out, it was starting to get a bit fickle, so Graham put out 2 sets – one the the east for a wind from the SE and one from the SW.  As it turned out, neither were accommodated by the wind.

We had conditions ranging from dead calm to hairy for the A sail, which we all started on eventually.  B sails were tried… dead calm arrived… B sails went back in the bag.

For a winter’s day, it was hot on the deck, with us all looking for shade.

We welcomed John Hickey’s new boat #381, and he promptly went out and won the first race – a good start John!

Mick Costa was a part time RO – thanks Mick, and Trevor Bowden was scooting around sorting out errant boats.  Graham Brown was left scratching his head with setting the marks.

Our racing yesterday was very much stop/start.  No wind – where was it coming from…sail a few metres, then stop again.  A day of frustration.  I believe the wind came from all the points of the compass at some stage during the afternoon.

It is interesting how our better sailors sort their way through the difficulties presented to get the results they achieve.

Martin Thearle had a great day to pick up three 1st places.  Graham Brown with 2; Robin Tickner and John Hickey with 1 each; and that is the order that they finished.

Martin was well clear with 10 points.

Graham was second with 15 points,

Robin and John both finished with 25 points, but Robin got the 3rd position on a count back.

Count backs were needed to sort out Noel McPherson and Rob Widders; and also Phil Hetherington and Trevor Bowden.I’ll have to do some work on the Club Championship – I’ll get back to you later!

Our next Sail day is Thursday 20^th August for a Scratch Event. 

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