Even a forecast of 15°C couldn’t keep the diehards away. Twenty DAC Sailors came along for our scratch sailing today.

We had clear skies and a moderate Westerly breeze on a rising tide. We were all rugged up accordingly and found it warm on the Deck and cool in the breeze. The West to Sou’Westerly ranged from a median 11 with gusts to 26 Km/Hr, (6 to 14 Knots).

“B” Sails were the go!

With such numbers we elected to use Race Officers, thank you to those who put their hands up. The Course was again dictated by the wind and unfortunately this gave us some quiet patches approaching the windward mark. The Race Officers were kept quite busy, but as they say ”it all worked out in the end”. The starts were well judged with only 2 “general recalls”.

The trek to the first mark was tricky, either starting at the starboard flag or to leeward gave quite varying results. To find the boat next to you with a pleasant gust (for them), was frustrating, but the ensuing catch up, satisfying.

There were many contenders for the first mark. We all saw the early leaders challenged by our perennial top markers weaving their way to the front end.

Graham Brown scored 11 points, his 3 firsts and a couple of seconds gave him a convincing win. Phil Stevenson and Rob Lowndes vied for second, Phil’s first and three places just pipped Rob into third by a point. Two wins for Rob just wasn’t quite enough. Martin Thearle had another good day on the water, two seconds and a third place was an admirable result in such a large Fleet. Stephen Deane who seems to shine with his ”B” sail, just took a while to rev up. Stephen hit his peak in Race 8 with an easy win.

Places and high finishes went well down the page, giving us all some glory at some time during the day.

Race winners were Graham Brown 3, Phil Stevenson 1, Rob Lowndes 2, Bruce Hilliard 1 and Stephen Deane 1.

Graham Brown took the honours for the day to win 1st place on 11 points.
Phil Stevenson finished in 2nd place on 18 points.
Rob Lowndes finished in 3rd place also with 19 points.

The Club Championship now has Graham Brown in front from Noel McPherson and Phil Stevenson.

Our next Sail day is Thursday 6th July for a Handicap Event.

Thanks to Ron for the Youtube video drone footage!

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