Arriving at Datchet this morning we initially had grey skies, but a great F3-4 Easterly - which had a bit of a nip in it, I admit. However, the sun gods won out and it turned into a really blue skies, bright light kind of day - and the breeze held !!
Great turnout too. Ten boats rigged - probably 8 raced. What a stunning sight they were too, lined up in the rigging area under the sun! John Basford was meant to be racing 3316 but the main halyard had disappeared... so by the time he had fixed that all he could do was day sail. But he'll try again next week... and the other bit of great news is that Tony Cumberbirch did a trial sail with Midnight Rog today. Tony has bought a dry suit, paid his subs, the lot. So he's "in" !! We also had two visitors referred from the Dinghy Show - another father and son team, I think. Fingers crossed for them coming to see more...
Now to the racing. Well it was near perfect conditions for FFs - sparkling sailing, with marginal planing and a fair bit to do upwind. Am shattered tonight, actually!! For the first race the PRO was again very prompt and half the fleet were still in transit to the start area. I appreciate the need for punctuality, but when the launch area is congested and running late I really don't see the point of booting off when half of us were being polite to women, children and wayfarer sailors on the slip.... So race one was something of a procession (viewed from the back!) and little point for the later launchers. In the distance it looked like The Stensons were really getting the hang of things. Mark and Tony won, but until the results are available online, the rest is a mystery to me!
Race two though was a different kettle of fish !! The line had a strong committee boat bias, so things got a little busy. Mark and Tony popped away from the middle of the line in clear air and opened up a teeny weeny little lead. The fleet was generally pretty bunched up, and on the first reach it looked a bit tight at first- - - but up went those spinnakers and off we all burst... all pretty close stuff and there was a fair bit of luffing and overtaking going on in the first triangle. Then the trick on the second beat was to go right. To be fair in previous beats there had been a good breeze curve to ride on the left, but in that Datchety way, it always pays to check out the right hand side - there was heaps going on over there and at the second visit to the windward mark, The Russians and Richard/Howard paid Mark and Tony a surprise visit. These three took off and left the rest of the fleet for a private battle. At the end, The Russians got it by a whisker (with much un-British whooping - why cant Estonians just say "Hurrah" like we do??) from Mark/Tony with Richard/Howard third. Then a big, big gap... but fourth and fifth were separated by just one second. The right old battle between The Humes and John/Helen was resolved in The Humes favour. Great stuff though !!...
Much talk in the bar of the FF Stand at the Dinghy Show... Some interesting ideas on the new Ovi, and lots of praise for how new Keith Jamieson's 15 year Mk IX old actually looked! The Admiral was reportedly running a sweep to see if anyone could guess its age.....
