We enjoyed some fantastic racing in a strong and gusty south easterly breeze gradually veering to the southerly forecast. The sailing was exciting, as off wind the DF 95s in A rig were often overpowered in the gusts, nosediving & broaching, but going really fast with the bluff shape of the BOTTLE boat throwing loads of spray everywhere.
We decided to use the west bank control area and set a small course in an area that was away from the visible patches of weed on the other side of the lake. The start marks also acted as the leeward gate and the windward mark defined a small triangle to minimise the weed problem. Initially there was a problem until the fleet had sailed up and down the course a few times where everyone had picked up weed and had to be rescued. Slieve who managed to collect some weed on every launching gave up after a couple of races.
This left 5 competitors who really enjoyed the closeness of the racing the 16 races, which gave us 3 discards, which basically covered these early weed problems. Everyone was pleased to have a win and the final scores show how close the racing was, with just 2 points separating the first 4 places!
The closest finish was in Race 8 between Alan and Martin fighting to avoid last place (5th). There was a bumper difference at the line with Alan taking the 4th place. Had the result of been different this would have affected the overall result giving Martin 3rd place overall by just one point instead of Alan. It was a really good day’s racing!
The photographs do not show all of us racing as Martin and I could not sail the last race, but my camera got some idea of the event, particularly the incredibly variable wind as can be seen in wind indicator angles of boats close together.
