Tue 18th July

Summer Points 2 – Report from Peter Proctor (Athene).
This was the second series of Tuesday evening Summer races for Garelochs. Little racing however was expected according to wind forecasts and virtually no race seemed possible minutes before the start of race preparations at around 6 pm when the Gareloch water was utterly calm. Miraculously, a mild blow happened minutes later so the race could take place after all and, furthermore,wind strength improved during the event. This meant that Race Officer Charles Darley, assisted by Jean Mackay, was able to extend racing duration to two laps of S2 – start line to mark C and back – instead of the anticipated one lap.
Seven Garelochs raced, a slightly lesser number than normally because of crew Summer holidays. The start was well achieved by six vessels but Hermes crossed the line a little early. This was exacerbated by a failed assumption that the vessel would achieve a law- abiding start even at the second attempt which wasn’t the case.
Beating up to the C mark across the Gareloch was via an ideal course adopted by Circe and Dione which put them considerably ahead of the rest of the fleet. Hermes also chose a similarly successful run after their seriously delayed start so that they impressively closed in on the rest of the competitors. Spinnakers got all back to the start line with time differences overall of some five minutes and then a welcome second lap. Gareloch positions varied for all except the first three finishers throughout and total times were of around one hour for completion.
Equally unexpectedly, wind strength vanished after completion of racing and the returns to yacht moorings. Almost as if there existed a devine wind beneficiary!
1 Circe, 2 Dione, 3 Thalia, 4 Hermes, 5 Athene, 6 Thia, 7 Luna (RO duty – Catriona)