A good turnout. Seven Garelochs came to the starting area and the sun shone. On the Water Race Officer Roger Kinns set a course beginning with a beat to C, off Clynder.
Teal and Catriona tried for the highly favoured shore end of the starting line. The rest, perhaps through force of habit, went towards the pin end and were immediately well to leeward of the leading pair. Catriona looked good to start with but the Gareloch wind was its changeable self and she soon fell into calm air. Those who had gone further up the loch prospered. The order at the first mark was Thalia, Teal, Athene, Thia, Catriona, Zephyrus, Hermes. The last probably suffering from marine growth and so underspeed. The leaders were half way across the loch on a downwind leg to G before Zephyrus and Catriona rounded C. A wind from behind and slickness with the spinnaker brought these two up to the leaders, who were languishing in an especially flat piece of water. Hermes was too late to benefit from this puff of wind.
Catriona rounded first for the beat back across the loch and never looked back. Or if she did, it was to check on the competition. Rounding for the chasing pack was slow with calls for mark room and boats three abreast. Thalia made a late charge for the second windward mark and was round ahead of Teal, which made for interesting tactics on the downwind leg to the finish. Athene, who was always in the fray, could not make her challenge on Thalia stick. Hermes’s problems were compounded as the wind died away.
1 Catriona, 2 Teal, 3 Thalia, 4 Athene, 5 Zephyrus, 6 Thia, 7 Hermes.
President: