Apologies for this but fourth time in a row……….
A flooding tide, course 100, a harbour tour complete with the usual (for us) navigational challenges. The warm sunshine and light(ish) SE breeze hardly warrant a mention; it seems to have been the pattern for weeks. Our primary objective was not to come third. (editor’s note: they failed!)
The plan started with promise, late for start, we spent most of the beat to Ellis Jones trying to avoid the rest of the fleet’s dirt. I’m not entirely certain of the order of rounding but it appeared close with Geoff and Richard, Crispin and Steve, Andrew and Peter and Ian L and Sam all looking good from the back of the fleet.
Whilst most of the fleet took the sensible route down Main Channel our tactician decided North Channel would be a better option. I’m not questioning his judgement, but any gain was marginal. I heard a rumour that Webley Heating nearly caught the Wednesday Wizards out but, there didn’t seem to be much between the leading bunch as they rounded.
So, the beat to Latham. Most of the fleet took a long port tack towards Brownsea, Geoff and Richard were leading at this point. We went left which for some inexplicable reason seemed to pay, certainly enough for us to see Geoff and Richard round Latham wrong way.
The next challenge, who (honestly) knows where Oyster is?? We benefited from a little breeze under the Island and picked up a couple of places whilst Crispin and Steve, Ian L and Sam and Phil and Martin seemed to break free from the rest of the fleet.
Next a short beat to Chris Somner. Ian and Sam and Crispin and Steve engaged in a tacking duel which Ian L and Sam won. At this point we were comfortably in fourth behind Phil and Martin, happy with our gains after Ellis Jones, and not thinking about having to do any homework.
I’m not quite sure how, but we just manged to sneak round WH2 in third (yeh!) just ahead of Phil and Martin, but the two leaders had pulled away from the rest of the fleet.
The beat to Wych was uneventful and so, spinnaker to Tregonwell? The wind seemed fairly far forward but the kite would have meant a lower course avoiding any “hole” under Brownsea. In the event the spinnaker option didn’t really work, and the “hole” under Brownsea certainly didn’t have any effect on the leaders. (Or perhaps no one else wanted to write the race report?)
So, congratulations to Ian and Sam. The race on Vektur is a bit sparse as only 6 boats seem to have uploaded their tracks. We forgot to start our tracker, and I understand Chis and Nadia’s will show them at home all afternoon.
It really is someone else’s turn next week.
 
Results
1 4115 Ian L / Sam
2 4101 Crispin / Steve
3 3922 Ian Z / Mike
4 4058 Phil / Martin
5 3966 Dave / Richard
6 4025 Chris / Nadia
7 4119 Tim / Edith
8 3936 Andrew / Peter
9 4027 Mike / Pete
10 4005 Kim Gavin/ Simon King
11 4054 Andy / Simon
12 3901 Peter / Steve
13 4088 Geoff / Richard
14 4019 Steve / Michael
15 3965 Dave / Gareth
Rtd 3971 David / Frances
Rtd 4020 Graham/Ben
 
View the race; https://racetracker.vektur.app/watch/ZEo111lLczESSUMrk1q4GQ