Five teams totalling 15 boats were greeted by a light breeze which faded as the day wore on ending in challenging drifting conditions.

3 Rivers A
Tony Guerrier. 50 Quark
Austin Guerrier. 46 Prime Number
John Male. 56 Starkers2

3 Rivers B
Peter Popham. 71 Cream Craker
Keith Allen. 77 Starkers3
John Carter. 9 Starkers2

Guildford A
Martin Crysell. 52 Prime Number
John Shorrock. 26 Quark
Terry Rensch. 92 Quark

Guildford B
Roger Stollery. 17 Uproar
Hugh McAdoo. 16 Prime Number
Dick Grainge 181 Starkers

Clapham
Rob Vice. 41 Mystick
CJ Vice. 89 Crazy Tube Too
Lockie Vice 171 Crazy Tube Too

For those who have never had the pleasure of team racing the concept is a great way to open the season as you can happily give and receive coaching from your teams while also sharpening your race craft by thinking who you can position your yacht to benefit your team mates so some deliberately forcing boats over the start line early, wide buoy rounding and even some deliberate incorrect buoy rounding were seen today which helps spice up the racing! The teams race against each other so 6 boats are on the water at any one time with the aim being to secure a winning combination of the 6 available positions to secure a win for the team. The team with the most wins takes the glory with any ties being split by the result of the race between those tied teams.

Roger Stollery was launching his new UpRoar which to my eyes looked like a Roar Edge style moulding to a Crazy Tube dimensions but no doubt there is much more to that story that will be better coming from Roger than me! And a re-launch of Rob’s 25 year old Mystick after a winter diet and refit which removed over 200g from the hull and some updating of the rigs, fin and for today’s light airs a 1m bulb.

Race 1 saw Guildford A against Guilford B with John Shorrock winning from Roger, Hugh and Terry. Meaning that the result relied on the last two boats which Martin tipped in favour of Guildford A by beating Dick to 5th place, after Dick had missed a mark and had to go back.

Race 2 Pitched the Guildford A with Three Rivers A which Guildford took with 1st 3rd and 5th positions from Martin, John and Terry respectively from Austin (2nd) Tony (4th) and John (6th)

Race 3 Brought a change of course and Three Rivers A going up against Clapham Three Rivers took an early domination with 1st ,2nd and 4th but with the first 4 boats sailing the leeward mark in the wrong direction caused a turning of the tables and saw Clapham leading much of the race with a 1st and 2nd before superior boat speed grinding down the gap and forcing an error on the last leg to for Tony to win from Austin then Rob and CJ with John beating Lockie.
During this race Roger got some news from home and saw him leave for the day so further evaluation of his new RM will have to wait for a bit more breeze.

Race 4 Gave us the home club rivalry battle with Three Rivers A taking on Three Rivers B which saw the A team win with the decisive 1st and 2nd places by Tony and John Male.

Race 5 Saw Clapham sail against Three Rivers B where another dominant performance saw Three Rivers win with Peter and John Carter being the first two boats over the line.

Race 6 What little wind we had had started to fade and despite the good progress it was obvious that only 1 round was going to be possible with a further 5 races still to go so the course was shortened and tweaked to retain something of a beat in a fading breeze. Guildford B against Three Rivers B meant that with Roger missing, Martin sailed in his place to good effect helping Hugh and Dick getting 1st and 3rd for a winning combination.

Race 7 Saw another win for Guildford B against Clapham with a dominant result after a close race with Martin winning from Hugh.

So with 3 races to go the overall scores were:
Guildford A 2 from 2
Guildford B 2 from 3
3 Rivers A 2 from 3
3 Rivers B 1 from 3
Clapham 0 from 3

Race 8 Two of the leading teams sail their last and Guildford B beat Three Rivers A by the closest of scores being 1st 4th and 5th after Hugh won from Tony.

Race 9 Guildford A got back into action against 3 Rivers B and after the positions changed dramatically within 5 meters of the finish line when a faint breeze filled from the north side of the course and brought a 1st and 2nd for Terry and John. This maintained their 100% record and took them onto the same score as Guildford B with 1 race to go.

Final race 10 paired bottom team Clapham and Guildford A in the lightest of the breezes. Rob with the 25 year old boat worked into an early lead which despite some delaying tactics he carried to the finish line ahead of Terry and Martin so once again the race went to the wire in the effort to avoid the fatal 6th place. Brothers CJ and Lockie played a savvy team effort to slow John and get the decisive 4th and 5th places and a win for the under dogs!

The count back system settled the day’s result to..
Guildford A 3 from 4
Guildford B 3 from 4
3 Rivers A 2 from 4
3 Rivers B 1 from 4
Clapham 1 from 4

The prizes were handed to the victorious Guilford A team and thanks were given to the host club and their organising team without whom we could not have had such a challenging but fun day’s racing.

Report by Rob Vice