Tuesday dawned with wall-to-wall sunshine and the prospect of a sea breeze. However, some cloud cover delayed its arrival and as the sequence for the first race started what breeze there was on the line was swinging between North and South.
RACE 5: GREEN v BLUE Flights, COURSE 1,4,1,3
With slack tide but little or no wind, the fleet were line shy and unable to make much progress. Lucy Harridge and Andrea Downham found pressure by the watch house, hoisted their kite and disappeared up the track into a substantial lead. With a lot of the fleet, including some prominent names becalmed on the start line, James Goss and Chris White used their pond sailing expertise to find pressure on the Portlemouth shore and came through to lead by 50 metres at Blackstone.
As the leaders came into the transition zone off the Ferry, Taxi and Pippa who had been about 15th at Blackstone found a clear path through to grab the lead and extend down to Yalton. At this point there was an interesting sight of National and Olympic Champions Christian and Luke, and Stu and Katherine battling it out for last place!
With the sea breeze now established giving beautiful sailing conditions under a clear sky, it was a case of the richer getting richer. Taxi and Pippa continued to lead on the long beat back to Blackstone, chased by Simon Potts and Holly McArthur who had staged an extraordinary recovery having been last to cross the start line. Steve Hall and Si Haighton were going well in third but with a tight pack of six boats chasing hard.
At the line, Taxi and Pippa took their second bullet, to strengthen their position at the top of the leader board. Simon and Holly were comfortable in third with Steve and Si keeping ahead of the pack. Richard Whitworth and Jemima Scroggie snatched fourth on the line ahead of a blanket finish with Jack Norton and Dave Royce, top Silver Fleet team, just getting the better of Rob Kennaugh and Andrew Prosser in fifth and sixth.
Christian and Luke, and Stu and Katherine staged comebacks but were still deep and will hope these were their discards.
Top Bronze Fleet team were Timothy Harms and Amelia Little in 35th.
RACE 6: RED v BLACK Flights, Course 1,7,3,7,X
Over the lunch break, clouds rolled in, the sea breeze died and a moderate NNW established. The hot money was to start under the Watch House on the town side and tack up to the Ferry Inn to hook into breeze out of Batson.
Ian Dobson and Ali Potts won the battle up the shore to lead Tim Fells and Fran Gifford into Snapes where there was the inevitable park up. Will and Rob Henderson Buffalo-Girled around the outside to take the lead up harbour to Gerston from Ian and Ali.
On the run back down to Crossways, Ian and Ali managed to get through Will and Rob and extend away on what had become a full power beat back up to Gerston. Tom Gillard and Rachael Grey had worked their way into third and were in a battle with Mike and Jane Calvert as the leaders came back into the harbour.
As often is the case, the last loop around X was not without incident. Ian and Ali were far enough ahead to round X and hold pressure to the line for the bullet but behind them the breeze died and chasers came up on new pressure. Mike and Jane snuck round in second for another good result.
Tim and Fran rounded ahead of Tom and Rachael who managed to just get back past into third on the line. Steve Crooks and Sally Townend claimed fifth, while Will and Rob were the big losers coming in sixth.
Top Silver Fleet team were Andy Harris and Sara Warren in 19th, with David and Frances Bursey leading home the Bronze fleet in 34th.
Overall, Taxi and Pippa have consolidated their lead from Tom and Rachael.
Report by Tim Fells
