The results after handicaps have been applied 1st Pretty Woman (Brad and Ruth Aspin’s new boat) 2nd Eye Spy 3rd Escape 4th Firsty 5th Nona 6th Water Witch 7th Satisfaction Line start - Escape Floating Dock Services voucher for a lift and clean - Water Witch Race report from Eye Spy: First of the Winter series and the wind is light. The sky is over-cast and the crew is hung-over. Crew today is Mark and JK. Lisa is visiting the rolling vistas of Scotland. The course was #3 but that soon changed to Meola and return. The start was delayed on account of a lack of puff. Good to see such a good turn-out for the fist of the winter series. Welcome to “Pretty Woman” who you would have to say is a “Pretty Quick” boat. Nigel in the tower delayed the start and we finally got going with about five knots about half an hour late. Eye Spy is light so we backed our performance in these conditions. We expected the big boats to sneak away but not quite as much as “Pretty Woman”. We had Nona knocking on our transom soon after the start and she even shaped up to having a go over-taking to windward. Didn’t happen and we soon created a large gap between us. There were thoughts of getting a kite up on the way to Meola but as shifty as the wind was, it was forward of the beam for the majority. Looked like fun on Firsty though! Rounded Meola behind Pretty Woman, Firsty and Escape, chucked the kite up but no place changes till the finish line. We stayed close to Escape but was it enough to beat him on handi-cap? Yes it was……….we come second to Pretty Woman. Well done team. Race Report from Nona After the fog had cleared and the Juniors were being towed back to shore as there was no wind, things were not looking promising. Onto the race course and the postponement flag is up. Very helpful for Satisfaction who was still heading for the star after 1300. At 1320 we are off and being mindful of several large boats and two dredging barges in the vicinity of the start line we go with the conservative approach. We start fifth of seven boats and stay in this position to the finish. On board is David and Bronwyn, the breeze is NE...sort of...and the course is up to and around Meola (P) then home with an incoming tide. The plan of staying out of the tide does not really work as Eye Spy is between us and the wind and it was more effective than not having the tide. The big boats of Firsty, Escape and Pretty Woman are in the distance in a race of their own. We just have ES to try and catch and to stay ahead of Water Witch and Satisfaction. Coming up to the buoy, we had to rely on a wind shift to make the lie, and the call is well clear of the buoy, this changes to “up, up, up” and we squeeze around without change to our paintwork. The big boys are putting up the spinnakers, shame I left mine in the garage (don’t want them to fade) and it is a leisurely sail home as the wind is ranging from 3 to 12 knots. We finish fifth on the line and fifth on handicap in a day that was a little frustrating but at least it was dry. Thanks to the start tower, the social committee for heating up the left over’s from prize giving and the Floating Dock Services for the lift and clean voucher won by Water Witch. If you can’t fit the boat into the dock Gary, Nona can go instead??. Nona |
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