Race 1
Gary had the best start, close to the shore, with neil and me tussling towards the Island upwind of Gary. The cats were sailing towards the far side of the island before jybing in to chute the channel ahead of us two lasers, Jason chasing close behind stealing our wind. Neil pushed me up until he had to give a bit of room along the Island, but he wasn’t giving much, resulting in all 4 of us single hulls falling foul of the shadow as we rounded the island- Gary suffering first so Neil and I caught up & joined him going nowhere while Jason caught up and managed to carry a bit of speed to catch up to Gary. Trevor was dead in the water too despite flying his spinnaker but struggling to locate the wind direction.
Neil caught the wind first but was neck and neck with Gary, until choosing to tack and head upwind along the far side of the island. Here Gary went quite wide, Neil a good bit closer inland of the island, Jason in between and closing in on them both, me following by this point, with waves battering my progress. The Catamarans had taken much wider courses and so started to now pull ahead towards the line. Neil headed a straighter course towards the club, but it was Gary and Jason that had a right tussle to keep up- with all three crossing the line in close succession. I followed with a wind shift now aiding me to catch them up. A little distance but not too far behind me was Trev in the Vago, who had also got stuck in the islands wind shadow and turned around a bit, but unfortunately (for me) a brief swim in the choppy water the far side of the island left he and Corrado to bring up the tail. Corrado probably too the best line of everyone missing the wind shadow but not sure what happened towards the island rounding, as he then took some time to cross the line. The other cat (Sam) hadn’t been able to get back on the water with a repair until we were headed for the single lap finish so enjoyed some epic reaches towards the channel near the far side of the island and back to the club while waiting for us.

Results