Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

Well done Paul for making 3^rd in the Wraysbury Open – small fleet but you can only beat the guys who are there. Best wishes for Salcombe!

Meanwhile back at the barn...  also well done to Frank winning a race the other Saturday and showing a good turn of speed on Sunday.

Sunday we had a decent turnout in a shifty NE or SE wind (depending what it was feeling like). Nine boats felt like a lot on the start leading to some crowding and Mark A being over the line – excellent fleet discipline – everyone seems to have figured the rules at the start – you can’t barge in, you can gently push a windward boat higher and if you are forced to go over the line you just have to go.  Up the first beat Frank showed again that he reads the light airs well so at the windward mark it was Gareth just ahead of Frank and then quite a gap to the rest of the fleet.  Quentin – first time out I think on a great day for it – showing that he hasn’t forgotten much over the winter I think leading the pack with Peter Renn and Mark K having a really good tussle at the back of the fleet.  From what I could see Mark A slowly made his way through the fleet and Quentin reeled in Frank but Mark and Quentin continued really close all race. In fact there were lots of close races all down the track – that’s what we want. I can think of several more sailors who weren’t out on Sunday morning that could have swelled the fleet to epic proportions.

Final placings:

1   5215  GARETH

2   4418   QUENTIN

3   5180   MARK A

4   3365   FRANK

5   4252   CELSO

6   3457   MERVYN

7   4071   PETER H

8   3142   PETER R

9   3827   MARK K

A special mention must go to Mervyn who lost the pin from a shroud on the first lap.

In the B2B we had a rising and very shifty wind – the Race Officer (Great to see you Tony – now get that Solo out...) said there were eight boats capsized by one gust (it’s tough when the boat tacks just due to a wind shift with crew still hiking). Fortunately I wasn’t one of them but I was dumped into irons and had to reverse out at one point. I went to tack but the wind went round faster than I was turning and I just stopped head to the new wind and still stuck under the boom. Fortunately I was able to get going again without falling in but it was a near thing. I hadn’t realise how many boats went over.

I’m in the US at the moment but will be back for Sat duty and Sunday.   Hope to see you all then.

Gareth