There was good wind but, in the way of the Gareloch, it was variable in direction and there were anonymous quiet patches which could hold back a yacht long enough for large margins between places to be reversed.
On the water Race Officer Ufo Sutter sent us on a true beat to D, north of Clynder. Catriona was away first with Teal in hot pursuit. Teal pointed high but in the variable air it did not pay. Catriona sailed further from the wind but kept her momentum. Those two tended towards the Clynder shore, from which the wind was blowing. Hermes and Thia went up the Shandon shore and made the most of the steadier wind.
It has become almost a tradition that competitors who should know better sail for the wrong mark. So it was today. Catriona, leading downwind across the loch from D headed first for a mooring. Seeing the small pick up buoy, she realised her error but began heading for F instead of G. Now the position of some marks has recently been adjusted. That might have been a good excuse except that Catriona’s helm was in the team that did the adjusting. It was Hermes who saw what was happening first. She, Thia and Teal began heading the right way. Catriona dropped to fourth place.
Time for a second round. On the long beat upwind to D, Catriona got back on terms with Teal. She tried to tack on top but Teal’s momentum got the better of her and she was obliged to tack away. Teal did not cover, which was her undoing. Hermes, meanwhile, repeated her trick of the first round and made ground by sticking to the Shandon shore. Miriam Sutter, on Athene, was irritated to lose a place to Ceres.
1 Catriona, 2 Hermes, 3 Teal, 4 Thia, 5 Ceres, 6 Athene.
President: