Another beautiful sunny day with a gusty offshore wind. It started with gusts of a couple of knots but as the morning progressed so the wind increased with gusts up to force 4 or 5.

Jake and Josh set a small course which suited the slower boats and Nigel kept close enough behind Neil to seal the win on handicap. Lawrence got caught by one of the gusts and capsized, retiring hurt, letting Andy Fung (a frequent cruiser but rare racer) into 3rd.

The course was extended for the second race and this took the boats out into the stronger wind and chop which didn’t suit Nigel in the Topper but gave Neil in his Laser some screaming reaches. Nigel took 2nd place behind Neil with Andy again in 3rd.

Neil now leads the series with Danny 2nd and Nigel 3rd, counting 4 races (after discards) with 6 more races planned, so all still to play for.

Results

Only 5 boats turned up for the Big Cup Day.  Two cups; the Watler Cup for the fast fleet and the Centripump Cup for the slow fleet would be fought over in the first race. After Rex was hit by a huge wave while launching that left just four; two for each cup.

The wind was a very gusty and shifty north-easterly this time.  Steve in his RS700 and Andrew in his Topaz CX14X catamaran struggled to put distance on the slow boats but when Andrew hit a mark and did his penalty Steve was assured of the Watler cup.  Series points were to play for as well and mid race the two slow boats were ahead on handicap with Dan in his Enterprise edging it over Lawrence in his Comet. Disaster struck for Dan 2 marks from the finish when a nasty wind shift resulted in a capsize and Lawrence sailed to a win and the Centripump cup.

The tide had turned for the second race and this gave Steve the edge over the slower boats with Lawrence finishing 2nd and Dan 3rd.

Results