Whilst a few minds were occupied with a minor competition somewhere in Spain, the most important sailing event of the day was taking place in Poole Harbour.  Fifteen Fifteens took to the water for what looked like quiet race with potentially the tide being a greater influence than the wind.

Fi and team set another course to challenge the memory banks comprising:
Bell, Wilkes, Latham, Morris Lane, Chris Somner, Outdoor Gear, finish (there was more but the course was shortened).
The last of the flood tide provided the first challenge – left or right on the first beat to Bell?  Most of the fleet chose to go right whilst a few of us thought left was best.  So, it looked until we tacked too early and the tide evened the choice on the final approach to Bell allowing Peter and Steve to round first, with Richard and Alan second and Mike and I third.
So again, left towards the Brownsea shore and the Wych or right Main/N Channel to Wilkes?  The departing commercial vessel made us choose left – what a mistake this turned out to be.  Whilst Peter and Steve proceeded to perform a bit of “horizon job” with Richard and Alan following, the rest of the fleet closed-up on the approach to Wilkes.
After a remarkably civilised rounding of Wilkes by the fleet the wind picked up and with the tide now definitely ebbing strongly there was a short beat to Latham’s.  Peter and Steve led again at Latham’s but by this time Roberta and John had taken second with Richard and Alan third.  These three appeared to have established a healthy lead over the rest of the fleet – no problems I thought, I won’t have to worry a keyboard this week.
The rest of the fleet was close on the run to Morris Lane with a number of boats vying to lead the bunch at Morris Lane.  Somehow, we managed to creep round in fourth only to be greeted by the sight of Alan performing a foredeck dance whilst packing the spinnaker after rounding the mark. – no bother I thought they would hold their position, but this was obviously simply a tactic to avoid writing the race report.
A beat from Morris Lane to Chris Somner has proved “challenging” for us in recent weeks but a favourable shift and the ebbing tide lifted us on the approach to the mark so whilst we couldn’t catch Peter and Steve or Roberta and John, we managed to round Chris Somner just ahead of Ann and John with Richard and Alan close behind.
With John making dire threats if we were to even think about letting them through to third all we could do was watch Peter and Steve and Roberta and John hunt for Outdoor Gear.  Sadly for us they spotted it too early so all we could do was enjoy the close reach.  Fi told me later that she had planned this to be a spinnaker reach but the wind Gods/ Met Office had let her down.
Another great turnout, a great race with lots of place changing and we still had to find out what had happened in Barcelona.
Results

1. 3901     Peter B & Steve
2. 4016     Roberta & John L
3. 3936     Ian & Mike B
4. 3974     Ann & John K
5. 3966     Richard & Alan
6. 4019     Steve R & Rob
7. 3934     Graham D & Homfray
8. 3971     David W & Frances
9. 3851     David P & Brett
10. 4111     Mervyn & Ron
11. 4088     Geof & H
12. 4025     Chris & Nadia
13. 3965     David T & Gareth
14. 3922     Peter V & Andy
15. 4036     Dick & Pete T