admin Date , April 26, 2025 Sailing Previous Blog Cruising to Marlow Comments (0)
Sunday morning saw 6 single-handers and a Mirror contest 2 back-to-back races on a dry day with sunny intervals and a NNE breeze, force 2-3 with gusts up to force 4. The first start followed the UTSC trend of the wind dying just as the starter klaxon sounded.
Dave Bull led as the fleet hugged the Berkshire bank on a broad reach to the Medium mark followed by a short beat to the Short mark and a close reach back to the Home mark. Some gybes at the Home mark were enlivened by stronger gusts, but all survived, except for Chris who decided to check the paintwork on his hull immediately after finishing. Alastair found his way past Dave to win the first race on the water, Garth beating Chris in the OK’s, whilst the Stockbridge’s in their Mirror impressed with their spinnaker work and, I bet, would most probably win on handicap. The second start was much closer, although the stronger gusts caught out a number of boats, including Alastair and very nearly both OKs in a particularly sudden gust at the gybe mark. With Alastair out of the running, Dave came first on the water followed by Andrew in his Lightning and the 2 OKs with Chris getting his revenge over Garth. The Mirror and Laser were both lapped over the longer 5 lap course.
The afternoon saw a small increase in wind speed, but a much-depleted group of only 4 boats, Mark in a club Wayfarer and the Russells in their Toura joining the Lightning and Mirror from the morning races. Andrew winning the first race on the water, whilst Mark won the second race on the water. It was good to see two Toppers and an Oppie out during fun sailing.
The afternoon had some further interest for spectators as a hire boat went aground off Cow Beach, where it stayed for a couple of hours before finally freeing itself. Paul and others went over in the safety Boat and tried to tow them off but the boat was firmly aground. Many thanks to Duncan and David in the safety boat and Becky helping in the box.
With the wind too Windy and variable for us, I spent the afternoon with Alistair learning to use Sailwave the scoring program.
I now have learnt the basics of the program so I can enter all the data of the race and results into the system.
