A delightfully sunny evening with steady wind [editor – well, initially!]. Race officer Barrie Choules took advantage and set one of the longer courses with a windward leg to the northernmost mark on the Clynder shore.
Athene, who was at the bottom of the order in the weekend’s championship, had just been lifted out for a routine survey. She had barnacles and, in the gap between the keel and rudder, mussels. Her skipper John Blackie took the helm of Catriona for the evening.
At the start, Catriona found herself pinned below Thia. Not wishing to remain there, she bore away sharply so as to be able to tack away behind. With the urgency of her initial approach to the line now lost, she later crossed behind Hermes and then Teal. The others had gone a different way but most looked ahead too. John used Catriona’s boat speed to squeeze to windward past Teal and was comfortably first at the mark. Despite confusion over the location of the second mark, F off Shandon church, Catriona was never challenged. Teal and Hermes had a battle on the spinnaker reach to F. Teal, with an advantageous inside overlap at the mark, took second place and managed to hold onto it by a slim margin at the finish. Dione, with guest helm Reay Mackay, was able to take a place from Luna under spinnaker.
1 Catriona, 2 Teal, 3 Hermes, 4 Thalia, 5 Dione, 6 Luna, 7 Ceres, 8 Thia.
President: