It was disappointing that the entry was just Roger, Martin and Peter Jackson as this was the first Marblehead club race for such a long time. Initially the continual heavy rain was also disappointing, but the thick clouds cleared away and we even got a bit of sunshine. As usual, the wind was not as forecast and the westerly took some time to take over from the southerly and the high winds never arrived, so we were in A rig all day.
We installed the landing stage on the southern control area and the course was set at an angle towards it. The wind made this awkward at first although it was spot on as soon as the westerly arrived.
We sailed 12 races and the results are attached, with Martin again winning the Teapot Trophy, both on merit and on handicap with seven wins with Peter second and Roger last with five wins. Such are the merits of our handicap system! Roger and Martin helped Peter to improve his performance by several changes to the sail trim. Peter will be back again with more suggested improvements for next time!
When the sun came out Roger recorded some of the gorgeous scenes at Abbey Meads and one particular special occurrence. This was a group of four cormorants perched on the branches of the big fallen tree in the middle of the lake. This was a family with the two parents teaching the kids to dry their wings. This was most dramatic because cormorants are large black birds, but the juveniles have a white breast as can be seen in the photos.
We look forward to more support for Hydonia, the next Marblehead club race on 20 November.
