When we arrived the wind was howling and the waves looked huge. Was this going to be the 3rd Summer Series racing in a row to be called off? By 2:30 it was looking as if the wind was dropping and the gusts were at the bottom end of Force 6 so six boats got ready to launch with 3 Lasers (Andy, Robin and Jason) – all opting for a Radial rig, Andrew in his Cat, Steve in his RS700 (should have opted for a Radial) and Nigel in a Topper.
Racing got underway late after the wheel fell off the Patrol Boat and some exciting launching. By now the expected decrease in wind strength had changed to an increase, with gusts at the top end of Force 6. Nigel and Andrew relished the conditions but the rest of the fleet didn’t and all ended up retiring.
The second race was abandoned as the 2 competitors remaining thought that 2 boats didn’t make a race. They hadn’t read the Sailing Instructions which clearly state that you can have a race with 2 boats, but maybe that was just an excuse…
The discards have now been applied and Nigel leads the series with Neil in 2nd and Steve (Radial) in 3rd. Early days yet; if these windy Sundays don’t continue we might get some more races in.