After the bruising and battering of Saturday’s race a very warm and sunny 5-10kts Southerly was a welcome return to civilised sailing.

Fifteen Fifteens headed for the start and after a short postponement whilst the light breeze veered from SE and settled to SW we all got away with a clean start. The fleet split between those tacking off onto port, mostly to get clear air, and those who had a better lane off the start line and headed towards Brownsea. How close to Brownsea and when to head off up the harbour proved critical. Some opted to go all the way into the RoRo terminal and initially this looked good but the front bunch arriving at Oyster had generally gone left and worked the shifts off the corner of Brownsea.

The leaders at this point were Pete & Jo (3793), Martin & Peter (3936), David & Frances (3971), ourselves (4058), Crispin & Steve (4058) and Steve & Lisa (4019). The first of several runs from Oyster to Tev Handles was a light and tricky leg sailing deep whenever pressure allowed.
We then had a repeat of the beat to Oyster, run to Tev Handles until we all got thoroughly confused. Fortunately Jo kept count and after the 4th(?) time around Oyster we had a long flicky run down to Christopher Head. Place changing in the top 5 had been minimal. Crispin had moved up to 2nd when Martin miscounted the number of runs to Tev Handles on the 3rd (?) rounding, we had stayed in 4th and Steve &  Lisa in 5th. Pete & Jo seemed untroubled in the lead which they had held from the first mark through to the finish.

On the long run down to Christopher Head we managed to sail a little deeper than Martin and Peter giving us the inside berth at the final mark before the short beat to the finish line. A long, hot and sometimes fickle race was done and time for a cold beer (and report writing for me) Thank you again to Fi and her race team. It was good to have you back.

Phil Cotton 4058
 
Results
1  3793 Pete & Jo
2  4101 Crispin & Steve
3  4058 Phil & Martin
4  3936 Martin & Peter
5  4019 Steve & Lisa
6  3965 David & Gareth
7  3901 Peter & Steve
8  4036 Dick & Pete
9  3758 Graham & Sara
10 3971 David & Francis
11 3922 Andrew & Mike
12 4054 Andy & Simon
13 4027 Mike & Paul
14 3916 Mike & Sean
15 3966 Richard & Alan