With Wednesday’s race cancelled, due to too much wind, it looked as if Saturday’s might be lost to the other extreme - too little. However, on arrival at the club there was a respectable 9-10 knots from the SE, together with sunshine and blue skies. By start time this had risen to a consistent 11 to 12 knots. Perfect conditions for a return to sailing, as I had not been in a boat since October.

With a little help from the surgeons at Poole I was back and ready to go. The advantage of the Fireball syndicate is that we are able to be flexible in our roles. With that in mind I opted to hand the tiller to Mike, so that I could break myself back in gently at the front end. This proved to be my best strategic decision of the day.

The course set was NC2, Stakes, Why Jewellers, Webley Heating, + Glovers, Webley Heating x2.

14 boats were on the water for the start, and we quickly decided on our tactics. We would go for the pin end, head for the North Channel and then make our way down the bank towards NC2.

As happens so often this plan was immediately dropped, as we reached the line early with 3901 underneath us, threatening to push us out. A crowd of boats hanging back from the line enabled us to sneak ahead of Pete in 3901 and reach down the line to cross mid line in clear air, closely followed by Simon and Andy in 4054.

Suddenly a different plan materialised as we saw that Pete and Jo in 3793, together with Geoff and Martin in 4088, were making good progress to our left and heading for Salterns. Who better to follow? Simon and Andy, Mike and (yet another) Pete in 4027, as well as Richard and Alan in 3966 had the same idea and came with us. As we crossed back over the North Channel it became clear that 3793 had made the right choice, and those who had gone further right had slipped behind. As we reached NC2 the first three (3793, 4088, 3936) came out on top and built up a good lead down the run.

These positions did not really change for the rest of the race. After Stakes 3793 tacked to the left allowing Geoff to pull back significantly. 4088 kept the pressure up with a close battle to Stakes. We were quietly hoping that this might let us through, but 3793 was not giving anything away and remained in front. Chris and Nadia were up in the mix in 4025, but lost out after dropping the kite under the bow at Stakes. Graham and Ben in 4020 started to close the gap behind us, and we were not unhappy to see the S flag saving us the risks of another trip to Glovers and Webley Heating. Was Graham holding back to avoid the report writing? Graham was followed over the line by Patrick and Will in 3821 and Simon and Andy in 4054.

What beautiful conditions for my return to sailing? Looking forward to more to come.       
Mike and Peter 3936.

1st        3793    Pete & Jo
2nd       4088    Geof & Martin
3rd        3936    Mike & Peter
4th        4020    Graham & Ben
5th        3821    Patrick & Will
6th        4054    Simon & Andy
7th        4111    Mervyn & Ron
8th        4025    Chris & Nadia
9th        3922    Andrew & Martin
10th     3901    Peter & Yung Leung
11th     4027    Mike & Pete
12th     4019    Steve & Lisa
13th     3974    Ann & John
14th      3966     Richard & Alan
 
 
Peter Verver