A chilly evening but good wind. Blowing from the east so that a start to windward was not feasible, the usual variability to further tax Race Officer Craig MacDonald.
He started us with a fetch to A, off the club. Most were so late to the line that Catriona, on pole, was worried about having the time wrong and being a minute early. The Sonars had shown us that a start at the pin was safest, even though the shore end was to windward. The wind in there was pot luck.
From A, a spinnaker leg to C, off Clynder. Concentration was needed to keep the spinnaker set to optimum on account of wind shifts. Back upwind to the starting area, the variability of wind direction was plain. Catriona hardened up at C to get across the loch and looked back at those rounding later to see she had been substantially headed. Perhaps that encouraged some to try the Clynder shore. It did not pay.
With wind lightening a little, Craig changed the course for the second round, omitting the reach to A. The leg to C, now more directly downwind, required a gybe as the wind towards the Clynder shore veered. All good practice early in the season.
The final leg to the finish required careful attention to the wind. Not just in sailing but seeing where it was and where it wasn’t. Ceres played it right. Circe spent a bit too long on the Clynder shore. Athene both sailed well and found the better air. Dione was not at the races. Miriam Sutter and Mairi McLean in Thia finished ahead of Ed Morris in Halcyone. Ollie Thompson inn Iris had trouble with a shroud and retired.
1 Catriona, 2 Ceres, 3 Circe, 4 Athene, 5 Dione, 6 Thia, 7 Halcyone, Iris Ret.
