A wonderful summer afternoon. There was enough wind. It would be churlish to complain about its variability.
Recent recruit to the Gareloch Class, Julian Forrester, brought along his daughter, Lucy. They left the moorings intending to sail on Dione but Catriona, arriving late as usual, had no crew and so Lucy changed boats.
On the water Race Officer Peter Proctor selected a course zig zagging across the loch and beginning with a leg to windward to B, off Silvers. Catriona got the best start with the best of the wind and was comfortably leading for the start of the downwind leg to Shandon. So as to even things up, wind lightened and filled in from behind, which brought up the fleet. Thalia made ground in a streak of good air in the middle of the loch.
For the second windward leg to Clynder, the fleet separated. Hermes has often done well by sticking to the Shandon shore when going to windward up the loch. She did the same in the opposite direction and was able to cross ahead of the fleet by a large margin. She slowed in light and changeable air on the Clynder shore but the large gap gave her a cushion. The others changed places as they crossed tacks trying to avoid the holes in the wind. Halcyone the best of the rest at one point. Teal and Thalia, doing battle, found one of the holes.
On the final approach to the C mark, Halcyone, Teal and Thalia were close together with rules about port and starboard tacks and mark room coming into play. The upshot was that none made an especially quick rounding.
Lucy (her first time on a Gareloch), who had helmed Catriona on the downwind legs, was disappointed not to win. She beat her father which was the main thing.
1 Hermes, 2 Catriona, 3 Thalia, 4 Teal, 5 Dione, 6 Halcyone, 7 Athene, 8 Ceres.
Recent recruit to the Gareloch Class, Julian Forrester, brought along his daughter, Lucy. They left the moorings intending to sail on Dione but Catriona, arriving late as usual, had no crew and so Lucy changed boats.
On the water Race Officer Peter Proctor selected a course zig zagging across the loch and beginning with a leg to windward to B, off Silvers. Catriona got the best start with the best of the wind and was comfortably leading for the start of the downwind leg to Shandon. So as to even things up, wind lightened and filled in from behind, which brought up the fleet. Thalia made ground in a streak of good air in the middle of the loch.
For the second windward leg to Clynder, the fleet separated. Hermes has often done well by sticking to the Shandon shore when going to windward up the loch. She did the same in the opposite direction and was able to cross ahead of the fleet by a large margin. She slowed in light and changeable air on the Clynder shore but the large gap gave her a cushion. The others changed places as they crossed tacks trying to avoid the holes in the wind. Halcyone the best of the rest at one point. Teal and Thalia, doing battle, found one of the holes.
On the final approach to the C mark, Halcyone, Teal and Thalia were close together with rules about port and starboard tacks and mark room coming into play. The upshot was that none made an especially quick rounding.
Lucy (her first time on a Gareloch), who had helmed Catriona on the downwind legs, was disappointed not to win. She beat her father which was the main thing.
1 Hermes, 2 Catriona, 3 Thalia, 4 Teal, 5 Dione, 6 Halcyone, 7 Athene, 8 Ceres.
President: