Sailors are used to delays (bar opening times, court appearances, etc.) so the initial 2 hour delay whilst the Great Sound was refilled from above didn’t have too many grumbles despite the bar not being open. I mean what sort of astute business brain does it take to work out that 150 sailors trapped by a Noah sized deluge for at least 2 hours in a bar might possibly equal staggering bar profits?
On to the racing. Boats made it out to the newly refilled race course for a 2pm start, which was difficult as the wind had been out on the town last night and was a bit slow and staggery. Anyway shortly after 2:15 the 105’s started their race, and all eyes eagerly awaited who would cross who at the top of the mark - would the Somerset shore pay off? Etchells next then J’s began to get ready. As the breeze started to increase a little some boats changed the rigs up from the 5 knot setting to the 10 knot one (a wise choice), others didn’t. The start was won convincingly by Sean and crew - they stormed quickly left (in not much breeze) with most of the pack hot on their heels. Stuart had a poor boat end start, tacked away onto a horrendous header, which every so slooooowly turned into a golden lift. The lefties paid the price of hanging on too long, save for Mayhem who started picking up places as the worked their way back right. At the top mark Stuart led Mike and Todd round, with Tony playing catch up behind.
The first run turned into a reach, then a run again, with the breeze now picking up nicely. Still genoas everywhere though.
Next leg had most of the 105’s and many of the E22’s heading to a red mark, and the rest to the yellow. No C flag for us so yellow it was. The squall then arrived unannounced, without as much as a “good afternoon”. Sean and Stuart were hesitant about showing their keels, the rest of the fleet wasn’t so coy - there were bottoms everywhere. A scary bunch of E22s tried to fly chutes and were well out of control - not pretty. The beat quickly turned into a 35 knot reach with genoas up, followed by a reach to the finish.
The R/C ignored the boats crossing and the N flag said it all.
Stuart was the first non-finisher with Erin and Mayhem in hot pursuit. Back to the dock to moan about the N flag etc etc, have some beers, increase the strength of the wind and hoist wet underwear up the mast to dry (classy move guys!).
Tomorrow is another day…..