Perhaps the best race of the year so far. There was plenty of wind, but not too much. Six boats at the start. On the water race officer Peter Proctor sent us on a beat to E, the most northerly mark on the Clynder shore. He concentrated too much on the stating signals so that his own boat’s start was compromised.
Teal and Catriona went for the favoured shore end of the start line. The rest, perhaps through force of habit, began at the pin, which was substantially to leeward. Teal and Catriona trended toward the Clynder shore and were surprised when Zephyrus and Thia, who had gone further right up the beat, crossed ahead on the starboard lay line to E.
Downwind, across the loch, to F, Catriona prospered with the spinnaker. It brought her up to Zephyrus. A shift in the wind led to some difficulty with boat handling at the mark. Zephyrus maintained her position, Catriona dropped her kite without losing too much ground. This was still strong. Teal lost a little handling her third sail. Hermes kept Thalia (who had not recovered from her start) at bay. On the reach back to the starting area, there was no effective change of places. Thia was furthest inshore so finished the round first, but she was poorly placed for the start of the second round and dropped to third.
On the next beat, Zephyrus kept her lead, Teal pressed hard but could not pass Catriona. Thia complained about poor performance to windward.
Zephyrus was not setting a spinnaker, which cost her the lead on the downwind leg to the finish.
1 Catriona, 2 Zephyrus, 3 Teal, 4 Thia, 5 Hermes, 6 Thalia.
President: