Rutland water open meeting 1 2017.
6 cherubs lined up on the Rutland grass verge, a few shades of green, a bit of black and grey, but as a curve ball, some red turned up! In the form of 'Dans Boat' under the new owners Luke and Jeremy Hartley.
With no one having a worthwhile sail since September last year, it was going to be an event to see who remembered the most.
Ronin, a beiker 1, got off the a good start, straight out the box, the Harris brothers kept the momentum up for the regatta with a perfect score.
Dans boat, a Banshee design, showed times of excellence rounding the top mark in second a few times, hot on the tail of ronin, but downwind performance let them down dropping them back down the fleet.
Exultant jubilation (EJ) , an E5, with Jay Williamson and Ade White rigged late and only did two laps of race one. With a few too many swims in R1 and R2 the called it early and retreated to the warmth of the clubhouse. Ade had prior arrangements on the Sunday which left Jay crewless.
Green bananas, a slug mod design, was sporting a square top jib to house more sail area up top. Nick and Greg were never going to be the lightest pairing so this was an good plan. Boat speed was good though, proving the idea works, until the batten in the top breaks. After a quick swap to the standard jib on Saturday they were off and causing carnage in race 3.
Banshee ambulance, a banshee design, with robin jones and joe (Sven) white used the wing mast well to cause upset at the front sneaking though gaps upwind, a non tuneable t foil caused issues for them though.
The shiny beast, a P7, had her first proper outing since major surgery to fit a new, bigger daggerboard. Crew and helm, Rosie Williamson and Jamie Pearson were both casualties of 'the fear' after differing a broken forestay the week before. A new, untested forestay was used which resulted in safer race tactics wherever possible. Although crew tiredness was the major issue on Sunday which just let the banshee ambulance through.
Special moments through the weekend have to be seeing dans boat again, and it doing so well!
The ribs in the pub were as ever and getting Ade white out of retirement is always a bonus.
All in all a great weekend. More weekend like that through the year would be gorgeous!
Thanks go to Rutland sailing club for hosting us. The Musto skiff, b14 and RS800 classes for being well mannered and considerate to each other.
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http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/195082/Cherubs-at-RutlandTah dahhhh!
