Not the easiest day's sailing - 4 May 23

The promise of sunshine and wind lured 13 Seavets to Farmoor for May's race day. Twelve were planning to race, I was there to test out my new hip for the first time on the water. The view from the clubhouse was of blue flat water but the offshore wind was deceptive and the easterly direction was generating increasingly strong gusts. Joe and Andy set a course on the Western half of the reservoir.

Andy was a bit late launching as he had to retrieve his cheese sandwich from a tree where an opportunistic crow had taken it. I watched everyone launch then went to change and went out to sail myself. I was a bit surprised by two things - how gusty it was and how little racing action seemed to be taking place.

Conditions were proving too difficult to start the racing so a decision was taken to have an early lunch then try for three races in the afternoon when the wind was expected to moderate. In the event although the wind was less strong it was still gusty and two races proved enough for most people. The first two places in each race were shared by Nick Kidd and Ady Rippington, with Ady winning the bottle of wine on countback. There but not featuring in the results (apart from myself) - John Chubb, Dave Gilchrist, Andy Lacy, Russ Canning.

Results