The Gareloch class hosted visitors John and Dale Golding of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club. John sailed on Catriona, his wife Dale on Thalia.
On the water Race Officer Roger Kinns set a course beginning with a long leg to windward to E, near Rahane. Catriona got a good start and led almost all the way to E until Thalia found a patch of better wind near the Clynder shore and took the place. The rest of the fleet had not done well on the beat and were well back.
Thalia kept her place on the reach across the loch to Shandon Church. Helped by inept spinnaker work on Catriona. The kite was of slight benefit once it was working. Thalia had elected to leave hers stowed until the run back to the starting area. After the F mark, the two leaders were close. Catriona managed to pull ahead from a leeward position and thence protected her place.
On the windward leg of the second round, some of the others were finding form. Especially Hermes who got an inside overlap on Thalia at the mark and began the run to the finish in second place. She declined to set her spinnaker, however, and so dropped back to third. Wind was now strong enough to cause some rocking and rolling on this dead downwind leg. As Dave Perry says, in his excellent ‘Winning in One Designs’: “If your rig is rocking and rolling, a bit dangerously, overtrim your main, put more weight to leeward, move aft and head up a bit. If you want to go faster, reverse all the above.”
Athene, in her first race of the season, set a kite and just failed to make the pass on Hermes.
1 Catriona, 2 Thalia, 3 Hermes, 4 Athene, 5 Zephyrus, 6 Thia.
President: