From Matt in the Commentary Box: “Calm sailing conditions today as the first race commenced. Charles didn’t have the best of starts but made up for this on the first leg. A close race between Jake and Danny, with Jake pulling out all the stops at the end to take the win”.
Danny takes over the story: “I started inshore on starboard but the wind had backed to the south & everyone crossed ahead of me on port. I managed to catch & pass everyone, but just after mark 2 the wind the wind dropped to nothing, I followed Steve out into the tide looking for wind on the leg back across the bay, but suffered in the tide and Aran & Jake inshore were getting ahead. Then I got the wind and came together with them at mark 3, then I screwed up the gybe & missed the mark, had to back around it, was then quite far behind. I kept chasing through the next lap until at the same point leg before finishing leg, Aran got hit by a gust/wave & capsized. Jake went on to win with me 2nd”.
Back to Matt: “Danny had a false start in Race 2 and had to return to the beginning but despite this he still managed to pass everyone and regain pole position on the first lap. An increasing wind was to Aran’s advantage allowing him to take the win. Charles had a great first leg but capsized on the second, filled his boat with water and was forced to retire”.
Danny again: “Nigel called me over so I went back to restart, so again started behind. I caught up and passed everyone again and got ahead with Jake 2nd. I think Aran capsized on the 2nd gybe mark but later Aran caught back up taking advantage of his size & power both upwind and on the reach. I stayed ahead, although he was catching up, until mark 2, the inshore gybe of the last lap. I got the main caught and capsized after the gybe. Aran sailed past to win, I got 2nd about 40 seconds behind”.
The safety boat was kept busy with the official count of eight capsizes in total.
Overall, Steve is still ahead with Danny in second and Neil third in the fast fleet. We now do have qualifiers in the slow fleet with Carmel leading Teilo, but these two, Pete and Robin need to sail next week to keep their places or fall out of qualifying. Aran and Jake have great results but need more races. With 8 races left in the series and 10 to count everything is still up for grabs.