Duty officers Niel Coleman and Geoff Burrell ( Niel did not sail in order to give his full attention to the sailing – well done to him )

A warm bright morning greeted the 14 skippers with a wind which was generally from the NNW, but with variations. Strength varied from a very pleasant top suit blow to “where has all the wind gone”

Probably the best morning of the summer so far with clear blue skys and a warm gentle breeze that got stronger as the morning went on, Chris Elliott OOD starting proceedings on the south bank, but by tea break the wind had veered 120 degrees  before finally settling in the North East quadrant for a spell, finally veering further into the South East when a move back to the South bank was made .The racing was close fought up and down the fleet and there was little to choose, The long beats needed care with the shifts and if you got round the weather mark first you still had work to do to stay in front, Consistency paid off and Dancing Dave Burke never out of the top three took the honors, well done, Phil H was unlucky to have a servo burn out and probably lucky he still as a boat as the smell of burning was extreme , the battle between Bert W 34 and Mick C 39 continues and we look forward to that next time, tactical chats in the new clubhouse each Wednesday could well be a benefit.

Many thanks to Jan for doing scoring for us you did a fantastic job, all in all a fab day of racing with 8 different types of boat from the 9 competitors.

Dragonflite round 2 summer series , although only two boats out it was a battle royal as they match raced there way round the course, Ivan and Gordon not giving an inch finally they could not be split and it appeard tobe a dead heat unless any one can find a way to tear them apart.

Mick Admin

A fine job was done by the duty officials Alan Newman and Bert Whitehead.

What appeared to be a steady wind from the SSW was deceptive. Hidden shifts and variable strength provided a continual test all morning. By the end of sailing the strength had risen to B suit proportions but nobody wanted to blink first. Two laps of a course which used the majority of the east bank resulted in fewer races than usual but allowed for plenty of close racing throughout the fleet.

Fantastic start to the summer series , with a fresh North Westerly and sunny skies, a little on the chilly side and racing was from the South Bank. 19 competitors turned up including one visitor. Keith Holmes our OOD for the day did a sterling job keeping the racing moving at all times and setting a long first beat which spread the fleet enough not to have any pile ups at the weather mark. First race was won by Mick Chamberlain in his V9 closely followed by Chris Elliott and Dave Burke. All skippers elected to start with B suits , it was marginal I have to say, after 4 races a coffee break was called,  and the wind had dropped a little, enough to send skippers into a panic to get the top suits on, many forgoing a cuppa just so they could remain in the hunt, Mick C Broke a shroud even before hitting the water and missed the next race and in trying to desperately get the B rig back on got in a major tangle and twist, He managed a first in race 6 which seemed to favor the B suit boys, the breeze was up and down for the rest of the morning,  but overall favored the Top suit, but gave some very exciting racing up and down the fleet. Towards the end of the morning breakages took there toll, and the fleet got depleted, Both Dave Burke and Chris Elliott showed good consistency to get their results, Neil Coleman sailed very well as did Chris Corrin with his Isis, The battle between Bert W and Mick Cooper continues. Every body had a great days racing and it did not matter to much where you were in the fleet there was always a battle going on. We look forward to the next round 15th May .

Mick Admin