Four lasers and one Topaz took to the water in a force four gusting to five south westerly breeze.
Race officer set a figure eight course with a dropped pin start to provide a beat, a broad reach, a beam reach and a run for each lap.
Race one saw the lasers split left and right off the start line with Andrew leading Steve, Danny and Neil at the Barry Pin. Lap two saw Steve and Andrew swapping places and duelling at the front of the pack, until on the flying downwind leg Andrew capsized and snapped his mast. Bob, who was spectating from the race control area, spotted his opportunity immediately and legged it home to get a spare mast top section from his loft. Before Andrew had even got his broken boat to the top of the ramp the deal was done and Bob made his sale!
Race two : Danny C drifted off downwind and couldn’t quite get back intime for the start, but the others split left and right again off the line. The wind and waves had picked up by now and the beat to Barry pin looked painful. This time it was Neil and Steve duelling with several lead changes. On the downwind leg of lap one it was neck and neck until Neil had his first capsize – to windward- the slap on the water could be heard from the tower as his laser inverted. Several capsizes and inversions later Neil came in across the line second to Steve followed by Danny P. Adding to the capsize tally was Dan C and credit to him for persevering and finishing the race.
Back on shore there were mutterings about the Race officer being a sadist for setting a challenging course, especially the second race, and Neil looked shattered after his capsizes. At least four windward capsizes, with added flip overs, which makes eight times at least ! Well done everyone, thanks to the depleted duty team and especially to Key for stepping in at the last minute.