Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

Very nice looking breeze come rigging time... Well rigging time for those who had not left their foils at home... Some spectacular bruises on display from those who had spent a windy weekend in very windy Wales at Class events... Breeze a bit north of East, and a nice Force three. Sadly it was to diminish steadily as the evening progressed, and was more like F1 by the end of the race. It started dropping quite early too, it felt more like a weather change than the standard evening lull, although breeze seems to be on again as I write the next morning... Still it was a good evening, even if the wind lovers were a bit disappointed.

From the first start Gareth Griffiths (Solo) Ian Hamilton (Xenon)  and Paul Playle (Solo) showed in front early, but by the windward mark Graham Potter (Albacore) had slipped into 2nd. Towards the end of the lap those 4 were still leading the class, in a tight bunch with Roy Poole (Solo).

It wasn't a good evening for telling Lasers apart by eye and the wind direction made reading sail numbers from the clubhouse difficult, but there was a tight bunch at the front and I think in the early stages John Leheup may have been leading from Rob Pettit and Evan Cairns, with John Smith and Jamie Scott not far away, but the front three especially seemed to do a fair bit of place changing.

From the fast start Mike Curtis and Julie Harrison appeared out of the fleet very quickly, tonight in the RS400. Dave Nunn (RS600), Mike Storey (Laser EPS) and Paul Wright Anderson (Rooster 8.1) were not far behind...

No very dramatic events that I saw - I'm told that one sailor, in a club Laser achieved her first dry capsize, but I certainly didn't spot anyone getting wet... Results are here. Gareth won the scratch race from Mike C and Paul W/A, whilst the personal handicap, yet again, went to Ian Hamilton. Last week by six corrected seconds, this week by three... Jamie Scott took 2nd from John Smith.