Race Officer Shane Rankin took advantage of a steady wind from the north west to set a course beginning with a windward leg to D, north of Clynder. The shore end of the fixed starting line was favoured and Catriona took to best place. Dione was close behind but tacked away down the line and was well to leeward at the gun. Most of the fleet ventured across the loch to begin with and were keen to stay in touch with each other. Luna thought to try the Shandon shore (often a tactic of Hermes) and it paid in spades. She crossed the loch to D well to the north of the fleet and in much better wind than the rest. In that group, Hermes and Ceres looked strong, Dione struggling to recover from her start. Thalia went close to the Clynder shore on a sight seeing trip (that is what her skipper said afterwards) and predictably lost wind.
This was Luna’s to lose. She rounded D with a large lead for the spinnaker reach to G on the Shandon shore and then home. Her first error was to be led astray by the Sonars, who sail a windward/leeward course and were not going to G. By the time she realised, she was too low on the mark to keep her spinnaker and a charging Catriona closed the gap. The mark rounding was easy, needing just a large bear away rather than a gybe. By the time Luna had re-hoisted her spinnaker, Catriona was past.
Hermes, meanwhile, had photogenic trouble with her third sail at the beginning of the reach. To the advantage of Dione and Ceres.
Dione was too far behind to make any impression on Luna, barring further errors of which there were none.
1 Catriona, 2 Luna, 3 Dione, 4 Ceres, 5 Hermes, 6 Thia, 7 Thalia.
President: