The breeze started a light northeaster and filled in a bit during the race. From the start, Ribwich and Mr Freeze were sailing fast with the windward end of the line being favoured. Those who started down the line were in a slightly different breeze. Southern Cross was showing excellent upwind form. Intensity was sailing well as was Hot Spots. Poseidon had some major rig adjustments today and were going much faster.
The Ribwich led around the first mark closely followed by Mr Freeze, Mainiac, Southern Cross and Windandsea. By the wing mark, The Ribwich, Mr Freeze and Mainiac had pulled away from the others a little. Mr Freeze did a close mark rounding and got in front while Mainiac overtook The Ribwich on the way to the bottom mark. Winandsea as usual flew downwind and caught up to the font.
Mr Freeze and Mainiac had a good battle for the rest of the race as did Southern Cross and The Ribwich. Intensity pulled away from Italian Stallions and Hot Spots did the same with Poseidon. Late in the race, Poseidon and a trailer yacht had a collision - not sure what happened there but Poseidon suffered some damage although they managed to complete the course.
Winandsea capsized twice between Mark X and the finish !!
Final handicap results saw a tie for first between The Ribwich and Southern Cross with Hot Spots finishing third.
The pointscore is very close at the front with two heats to go - Skulker is leading on 77 points from Wilful Intent on 77.25 and Poseidon on 84.75
Next race is the final heat of the club championship. The long course championship is very exciting with Mainiac and Mr Freeze equal on points after drops so far - all comes down to the last race