Breezy from the west to begin with, Race officer Neil Ross decided on the longest course but sensibly changed his mind and sent us on, in effect, a sausage course on the east shore.
Teal and Thalia opted for the Shandon shore from the start. To begin with this looked like the best option as they were pointing much higher than boats further out led by Zoe. There was a very nice wind out in the loch where, to get clear air, Hermes was forced as she was pushed down the course at the start by Catriona sailed by Penny singled handedly in the absence of her usual skipper. A lot of the boats closer to the shore suffered seriously from less wind and soon became relatively becalmed and watched semi-helplessly as the leading boats raced towards the G mark, now some considerable distance ahead.
Zoe led Hermes to the windward mark but she lost out due to the tide but retrieved her position on the downwind leg, where effective luffing enabled her to round the mark ahead and enabled Teal to make inroads on the substantial distance between the boats, so much so that on the beat further luffing from Zoe reduced substantially the lead. At the G mark Hermes approached from the further out windier loch with Zoe struggling further inshore with the ebb tide. After rounding the windward mark the order did not change and after the A mark Zoe was threatened by Teal. Meanwhile further back Thalia was slow in
getting her spinnaker up from G allowing Ceres to pass. Thereafter with Thia Catriona and Athene bringing up the rear, Ceres and Thalia battled it out for fourth and fifth places over the remaining lap and a half, with Ceres just taking the edge by virtue of gaining water rights at A, the penultimate mark prior to finishing. Athene suffered very badly from the ebb tide at the windward mark
Congratualtions are due to Penny for attempting to fly the spinnaker.
1 Hermes, 2 Zoe, 3 Teal, 4 Ceres, 5 Thalia, 6 Thia, 7 Catriona, (but retired after finishing) 8 Athene
President: