Seven Garelochs drifted to the starting area. Wind was light and continually veering. Race Officer Peter Proctor changed the course twice in an effort to achieve a beat to windward. We ended up going to C, off Clynder. It kept raining, which stopped whatever bit of movement in the air there might have been.
Dying wind at the start caught out many. Athene started well but appeared to stop as she tacked up the Shandon shore. The rest set off across the loch. Thalia, blanketed, opted to follow Athene, her crew amused themselves by examining closely a moored boat.
Travelling across the loch, there were periods of pressure on the sails. Some good lifts, too, but no getting away from the adverse effect of the ebb tide. Eventually, Athene and Thalia prospered and crossed the rest of the fleet. Judging the tack for the approach to C was crucial. It paid to stay a little further out, in better air, for as long as possible. Catriona closed the gap to the leaders here.
On the offwind leg to the finish, Athene suffered from a failure of equipment and did not set a spinnaker. Thalia allowed herself to get to leeward of Athene and was unable to get the best of her spinnaker. Catriona took the lead.
Meanwhile, Teal was looking for advantage over Hermes at the mark. She lost concentration and was carried onto it by the tide. The penalty turn ended her challenge. Hermes caught Athene at the finishing line.
In the end, a much better race than we might have expected.
1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Hermes, 4 Athene, 5 Teal, 6 Thia, 7 Ceres.
President: