Four Garelochs came to the starting line with crews on the helm. The evening breeze was welcome after the hot day. The Gareloch was uniformly rippled which encouraged us on a windward leg up the Shandon shore, then a broad reach to C, at the north end of Clynder. At the start of the reach, Catriona increased her lead from Hermes with a comparatively repaid hoist of the spinnaker. Thia and Dione some way back.
The water off the Clynder shore had become glassy smooth. Catriona ran out of momentum and was carried the wrong side of the mark on the ebb tide. Hermes saw what was happening and went high. She looked good for a while but she too succumbed to the tide. Thia and Dione arrived next and did their best but in no wind could do nothing. For a long time, we all tried to respond to every capricious movement of the flag at the top of the mast. It was Thia who made it back to the mark first, from Catriona, Hermes and Dione.
What, when we started, would have been a leg downwind was now a beat to windward to A, off the club. Thia began with a good lead but was drawn into the partial vacuum of the Clynder shore. Hermes made a good mark rounding and looked strong to windward of Catriona. Wind, though, was kind to the light blue boat. She had a large lead at A and sufficient pressure for the fine reach to the finish. Hermes, now second, and Thia set spinnakers for this leg. Thia got hers to fill and draw first but it was not enough. Dione never really escaped from the Clynder shore.
1 Catriona, Lucy Forrester. 2 Hermes, Wendy Jones. 3 Thia, Peter Brown. Dione, Diana Jasperse DNF.
President: