Sun 22nd May

Champagne wind. It would be churlish to comment on the variations which are typical of the Gareloch. On the water race officer Barrie Choules was able to select a course starting with a true beat to windward to B, off Silvers. The only compromise being the pin end bias of the starting line, unavoidable with fixed starting marks.

Teal got away well from Catriona (no longer single handed now that her crew has finished exams) with Dione champing at Catriona’s counter. Teal was making life difficult for any boat which tried to follow down the Shandon shore. Hermes had quietly tacked away early, along with Halcyone. When Dione went, Catriona followed. Dione tacked back to fight it out with Teal. Those who stuck to the Clynder shore prospered. Hermes first at B with Catriona obliged to give her mark room. Such was the lead that Hermes lost only one place by virtue of not setting a spinnaker on the run back across the loch. Teal and Dione delayed each other, Zephyrus kept out of trouble and was always in the hunt.

The next windward leg to Clynder was a matter of the wind being kind. Teal and Dione stuck to the Shandon shore to begin with and it did not pay.

There was little scope for overtaking on the last leg of the round, A reach back to the starting area. In the gusty wind, sometimes forward of the mast, a spinnaker would have been trying.

Time for a shorter second round with a beat to B again. Zephyrus took a place from Teal. Luna ended up beating down the middle of the loch, against tide, and lost a place to Thalia.

Teal tried her best to reel in Zephyrus but the last two legs were both reaches, not conducive to passing. She made her spinnaker work for a little while on the final leg but it was not enough.

1 Catriona, 2 Zephyrus, 3 Teal, 4 Dione, 5 Hermes, 6 Thalia, 7 Luna. Halcyone DNF.