Sorry to have been away from the forumn for a while.
Thanks Roland for advertising our good fortune this week.
Because Sarah could not sail the full champs due to a clash with the byte nationals, I had to enter with another crew for the full event.
Sue another enterpise crew from our home club Frampton-on-severn previously sailed the ent nationals in 83, 84 and 85 and has done some local events in the south west over the last 2-3 years.
We have had briliant light to medium wind speed but have struggled upwind in the stronger wind and waves. Mostly due to fitness and lack of weight.
we won race 1 by allowing for tide at 1st windward mark missing it by 5cm. Leading boat at the time hit it and had to do turns.
In race two Nick craig started imeadiately below us and forced us to tack off early into dirty wind. We recovered to 4th.
race three wind picked up and we did not break out of the leading pack and were in dirty air for several of the reaches. (10th)
Tuesday (windy 17 increasing to 22 knots and gusting to 28 knots).
9th in race 1 windward leeward course with leward mark(s) gate. ballancing our downwind speed and wave planing against our average upwind speed.
2nd race good start and first beat and went forward on the reaches. On second lap (a sausage) we passed 5+ boats on the run by going round the outside catching several waves at a time. Unfortunately had to abort a gybe at the leeward mark to avoid the boatinfront who had lost control. avoided a serious t-boning colision but we swam. lost 10 places to finish 15th.
Thursday race 1, started well in top 10 and moved up to 7th on first lap. gained another place on second beat but the wind shifted 30 degrees allowing 10 boats to sail over the top of us. Wind died and we had a difficult reach to the finish with the tide finishing 14th.
race 2 possibly our most saisfying. Started well and rounded windward mark 2nd. on second beat Nick craig passed us but we passed the early leader. We passed nick on the run taking the inside overlap. On final beat we pulled out a lead of 30 seconds over nick to take our second win.
Fridaywinds quite shifty and light. We had brilliant speed in the light wind and chopp. led at first mark by 30 yards. extended our lead from second to 40 seconds by the finish and nearly a leg ahead of the main pack.
really pleased with our 5th overal 3 race wins and that sue picked up up first lady and first over 40's crew trophy.
Sarah is quite gutted she couldn't sail in the ent nationals but sarah won a race at the byte nationals today.
