Following on from the clear blue skies and sunshine of day 1, the bikinis were out and shirts off in the dinghy park this morning ready for another day of glamour day on the water.
As the first boats left the slip, the blue haze in the distance gave promising indication of things to come. By 1300hrs the ‘Ora’ was doing it’s thing and usual Garda tactics came in to play. 4 boats went all out starting on port and clearing the rest of the fleet by a nat’s whisker.
It was Andy Jeffries and Dan Allin who led in to the first mark having started in port and hitting the cliffs first. Stevie Wilson and Alan Sign were following closely in second with Ben Schooling and George Kingsnorth in 3rd. With the Ora in full force it was ‘swing it to the knots and send it’ down the first run with no places changing by the leeward mark.
By the end of lap two the two lead boats were showing signs of tiring after two laps of neck and neck racing, eventually Stevie was able to capitalize on a mistake by Andy and Dan at the 2nd leeward mark to take the lead. Meanwhile, Dave Hivey was making a storming coming after being buried off the start line to catch up to 3rd by the final lap.
There were smiles a plenty going in to race 2 with the 36 boat fleet still high from the action in race 1. Keen to get going, a bunch formed early at the starboard end of the line and the inevitable result was a general recall. The restart got away cleanly with Adam Bruschett and Jody Warner being the only boat to start on port – showing the rest how it’s done! However, it was James Date and Toby Wincer in RWO who made clever use of the shifts up the left-hand side of the course to lead in to the first mark. Sadly this was a sign of things to come as the breeze began to die away as they approached the leeward mark a mile downwind. RWO were still in the lead following a 10 minute raft race to get round the mark, however the decision was made to abandon racing as the wind disappeared almost as suddenly as it had arrived. All racers are now ashore swapping tales over cold beer and carb loading on bowls of fresh pasta provided by the club.
With tomorrow looking like another hot day, it will be about keeping your cool and saving some energy if the 28 knot forecast is to be believed - with the crews union gathering tonight this may not be so easy!!
