(Report from Zephryus)
Well, what a beautiful afternoon, sun was shining and a light breeze on the Gareloch, lovely conditions for what was, for Zephyrus the first outing of the season.
The race officer set us on a beat across the loch to B. There was a bit of confusion around the start, I think the race officer was having similar problems with their start watch as we were. Catriona and Teal made it across the line first, at the back with Zephyrus were Dione and Hermes. The majority of boats tacked quickly after crossing the start, Zephyrus at the back decided to try something different and continued along the shore. It paid off as we approached B and rounded the mark fourth, behind Catriona, Halcyone and Luna. All boats launched their spinnakers, some sleeker than others and those who managed a sleek launch benefited greatly. A spinnaker jibe was required on the run to G, good conditions for those of us who need a bit of practice in jibing the spinnaker. Some boats decided to eke out the potential benefits of the spinnaker and kept it up for the reach to C, some benefited more from this than others and certainly resulted in a few changes in positions.
Time allowed for another round, though by this time Catriona at the front of the race was the clear leader. The second rounding of B saw some boats launching their spinnaker, others not and there did not seem to be a huge benefit this time round, well at least for those of us at the back of the race. Zephyrus did benefit from Thia’s troubled spinnaker launch, resulting in Thia dropping position to Zephyrus.
1 Catriona, 2 Dione, 3 Teal, 4 Halcyone, 5 Luna, 6 Hermes, 7 Thalia, 8 Ceres, 9 Zephyrus, 10 Thia
President: