TY numbers swelled to 3 for the first Championship race of the season.
With the wind building from the north east to 20 knots and the sun shining there was no weather related excuses for staying ashore.
Frou Frou’s crew were excited because it was the first race for a new mainsail. Frou Frou also welcomed aboard Rebecca, a new crew member for the season.
Momentums crew were excited because they got to go out on the water together one more time before Captain Barry has to take some sailing Saturdays off while his shoulder heals properly after surgery.
Grey Foxes crew were excited because Captain Digger was still alive and Leo showed for the first outing for this season.
Although the TY fleet was small you would have to say they were raring to go and full of promise.
The strengthening north easterly was making it difficult to hoist Frou Frou’s fancy new mainsail. Her gallant and determined crew of Rebecca, Alan and Peter got it half way up when it jammed and would go no further up or down. They eventually headed back to shore to drop the mast and un-jam the halyard from the top. Consequently Frou Frou missed the start, but did join in for the second triangle to get some important sailing experience with an new main and crew.
Momentums crew reported having a sail related problem as well. In the first half of the race at least her performance in the strong breeze was somewhat hindered by the absence of a smaller headsail that was left at home by the skipper.
Grey Fox sensibly reefed early, giving them the edge up wind for the first few legs in the 20 knots.
Bill and Richard, the duty crew for the day were kept very busy looking after capsizing dinghies and cat sailors struggling with the strong north easterly. I suppose in general terms 20 knots plus may not be considered an excessively strong breeze; it’s just that I believe most of us had not experienced them since the end of last season. We were all suffering from the start of the season rustiness.
Momentum selflessly gave up her lead position to stand by one of our capsized dinghies being blown downwind towards Oak Flats.
With the winds easing slightly during the final stages of the race Momentum showed us her class by hoisted her spinnaker for the last downwind run.
Final Placing Championship 1
First on CBH and PBH was Momentum with Barry, Ray, John and Ralf aboard. Second was Grey Fox with Digger and Leo aboard. As mentioned Frou Frou recorded a “did not start” for the race.
All credit to the finishers; it was still fun to be out on the water and post-race debriefing in the clubhouse.
See more of you at the next race I hope.
The end Trev