Martyn and Jen arrived as OD and assistant to find a very still lake but a number a familiar faces who had sorted out much of the required set-up. Thank you Richard, Kevin and Roger in particular. There was an expectancy of a North-West breeze, so buoys were moved for a short South bank course with a fairly distant upwind mark.

Racing commenced in light airs which periodically declined to nothing at all. Mick Chamberlain dealt best with the conditions, gaining a win, followed by Mick Cooper, then Jen.

The second race was taken by Chris Graves followed by Kevin and Micky Boy, up there again. A complete lack of wind then determined a coffee break to be appropriate, during which the wind tantalised us with its ups and downs combined with shifts of some 60 degrees in both directions. The course was puzzled over during and after the break, but essentially left as it was, although a wing mark was added. We would get a beat at some point in the race, we thought!

The day continued with similar conditions. For Roger, it was all or nothing; Three firsts and four retirements due to weed. Jen scored two firsts and Micky C took another bullet. Micky C showed the greatest consistency and took the day after 8 races, with Jen an impressive second and Chris coming third.

Overall, it was an ‘okay’ day! A reasonable sail in lovely, warm sunshine. There was also the entertainment of a long stream of tractors going up the road to Scotland Farm and back again. I hope nobody got behind them on the roads, as they left shortly before we finished for the day.

Thank you for the willing help from people in monitoring the start line, tidying away at the finish and for the good natured approach to our sailing in difficult conditions.

Martyn Aspinall

2^nd June 2024

Results from round 4 below

Seven sailors turned up Sunday morning to find the sun shining and the wind yet to start blowing, your race team for the day Mike Williams and Sam Parker found everything all ready set up for them thanks Roger Crates. Eventually the wind decided to put in an appearance and a simple course was set up on the east bank and racing got under way, the first bullet of the day was taken by Kevin Evison with his new Venti with the rest of the fleet drifting over the line very close together.

The wind then decided to go around by 90 degrees making the south bank the place to be, so with everyone pitching in the to help the race team move the equipment the second race of the day got underway, the second race was very close with Chris Elliott taking the win and Richard Jutsom with his new boat coming in second. For the third race of the day there was another move back to the east bank and again thanks to all of the sailors for there help in moving the equipment, it was starting to feel like we may do more walking moving the equipment from one bank to the other  than when sailing. Race 3 eventually got underway with the win  going to Chris Elliott and Colin Helliwell coming across the line in second putting together some good results so far.

It was decided that  this was a good time to take a break and wait for the wind to steady and hopefully stay in one direction but to no avail so back to the south bank we go for race four where Roger Crates managed to get the first of his race wins and Sam Parker bringing his Robot home in second place, racing for the rest of the day was to be on the south bank with the wind going around in circles and rising and falling, races five, six and were taken by Roger Crates with his home built Combo showing good pace after a slow start to the day. Race seven was to be interesting as the wind had veered around to give us a running start but thanks to everybody showing restraint no one was over the line with Chris Elliot taking the win, it was by now 12.50 and Mike Williams asked the fleet if they wanted one more race and with a resounding yes race eight was got underway with Roger Crates again showing his boats light weather performance taking the last win of the day. So with eight races sailed this gave us two discards and Roger Crates the overall win on the day with Chris Elliott taking second place overall on countback and Colin Helliwell taking third place  just one point less than Sam Parker.  At the end of the day all of the competitors helped the race team yet again by pitching  in to put away all of the equipment and all were thanked for making the days sailing fun as well as competitive.

The Summer Series league table now looks like this:

Storm Kathleen was not as bad in the East as it was in the West , but even so ten skippers showed up , and promptly, got their C rigs out of the car, it was reasonably warm, mainly sunny spells and if the rain stayed away ( which it did ) we were in for a treat , well nine of us anyway one skipper did not have a C rig , gave it a try with B and broke a shroud , game over. The racing as you can imagine was fast and it was a long beat and run course, but race officer Chris elected to do two races on the bounce and then have a ten minute break, ( looking at the age of some skippers this was definitely a good idea ) Mick C 46 got off to a great start winning the first , but then the V10 of Tim 44 got to grips with a superb showing and won the next five on the bounce, despite being troubled by a Knee problem. Chris E was doing well to keep up with Tim getting four second places before finally getting the bullet in race seven. Jen H 69 was having a decent day and towards the end bagged two bullets for herself, Colin H 20 was also going well and will be pleased with the progress he has made with the Pikanto, Dave R 57 was also doing Ok and only got pipped by one point by Martyn 9, Roger C 130 was sailing an unknown design, but despite his expertise the boat found it difficult in the wind and waves, Stuart who was also acting assistant OOD with Tim H , found it tough going with his Lintel. All in all it was a great day with ten races completed, and Tim H 44 in the V10 a clear winner, if you ask me personally tiredness set in after race one (Ha ha my excuse) but in truth it was a great days racing, competitive, yes perhaps a little to much at times .

Well done Tim, and all who helped out getting the stuff away .