As I Saw (and remembered) It

The forecast was northerly 10 kts building to 15 kts as the afternoon went on.

Brad had even managed to arrange for us to be first away this week which was nice. Race 1 saw a competitive start on a short line. With no side obviously favoured the fleet was soon spread across the bay. At the top it was The Saint around first followed by Knot Easy, W2, NGHAM, Aspen, Rapscallion and Athena.

A rigging error with the kite on Aspen delayed the hoist which allowed Rapscallion to quickly get up into 5^th. Meanwhile up ahead W2 got through both Knot Easy and The Saint to lead around the left-hand gate at bottom with the next 4 all line astern.

Off the bottom it was about finding a clear lane and working the shifts back to the top. NGHAM didn’t have the best rounding and with no tactical options open to them they headed to the RH corner. Out there they found a RH shift that saw them with a two-length lead at the top mark for the final time. W2 held off Knot Easy to round 2^nd. The Saint got caught furthest left and gave up a few more places to round 5^th behind Rapscallion.

On the run, the early gybe took away any tactical options meaning the top mark order was the same at the bottom. Just over 30 seconds separated the top 4 boats.

Races 2 provided similar conditions. The Saint was over early but fortunately had enough room to dip back and not be too late. Over on Rapscallion they had been right on the line at the boat end. With the individual recall not coming down as The Saint restarted Dave assumed they were over and headed back only for the flag to come down once they had started to head back. Not happy Jack!!

This time at the top NGHAM managed to get around a length or so ahead of The Saint who had managed to work themselves back into it after their less than perfect start. Just behind was Knot Easy who shut out W2 as they both came in on the starboard lay. W2 had to gybe away getting back into the line behind Aspen and just ahead of Rapscallion who after their partial restart were fighting to remain in touch. Just a length back was Athena.

On the run the distances seesawed but no passing lanes opened up until the bottom when Aspen took the RH gate while everyone else went around the LH one. This saw both W2 and Rapscallion move up a place as the left mark was favoured.

On the final beat distances between boats opened and closed as shifts favoured one or another but it had all balanced out again by the top with no position changes. This saw NGHAM round first and hold their lead to the bottom to take their second bullet of the day. The Saint held off Knot Easy who completed their good day with their second podium for the afternoon. Rapscallion couldn’t find their way past W2 and had to settle for 5^th.

It was close racing all day with on average two lengths separating the first 5 or 6 boats at the finish in both races. From there it was a quick kite reach back to the club. With the hoist still out of action it meant we didn’t have to spend time taking the boats form the water so straight to the bar to see a great Lions victory.