A fantastic weekend. Great club, B&B and camping within a 10 minute stagger from a well stocked bar with a giant balcony overlooking the sea. That combined with a sailing area that offered a 4 completely different sessions over a 2 days made for a great weekends sailing. Congratulations to Riot Van for winning the event and picking up 3rd in the Handicap fleet.
Session 1 - Ballistic. After watching several 5 tonners fail to make it more than 400m off the shore only Ellenor made the plunge. She came in when the race officer canned racing due to 35knot+ gusts and an admission that he didn't know which way to set the upwind marks due to the 50 degree gust shifts.
Session 2 - The fleet had a hotly contested round of Crazy golf (27 degress and in wet suits) which Ellenor's Dean won by 2 shots. At the 9th hole the wind had dropped and therefore we all went for a sail. The wind remained shifty, but some good grin factor was achieved by all.
Day 2.
Session 3
Sunday dawned clear and with a nice steady force 3, flat water and a gentle rolling swell. Racing was definitely on and with the strains of a Pink Floyd classic ringing in our ears we set off to the race area.
Race 1 - Elenor and Riot Van had a good tussle. Riot Van took the bullet. EJ missed the start by stopping to do some minor re-rigging and not noticing that the race office was 10 minutes ahead of schedule.
Race 2 - Elenor cut the fleet with a port flyer, Riot Van following closely behind. Having camped on the line, EJ got a slow start. At the top mark Riot van had Elenor closely in tow. Both had hoisted and gone before EJ made the mark, a blitzing downwind leg made everyone forget the long drives to get there. During the second lap EJ found her groove and arrived at the top mark a length ahead of Elenor, after crossing twice at the top of the beat. Riot van led to comfortably take the bullet, Elenor grabbed second as EJ set herself up for another lap instead of heading for the line.
Session 4
Wind dropped over lunch and paddling was required to get off the shore and into the wind line.
Race 3 - Riot and EJ went for the bonus extra races. Riot van had a long swim, but still managed to trounce EJ (not helped by EJ detouring on every lap top cross the line - just in case).
