Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

I'm hoping that Gareth is going to be able to edit this report and add more, because I wasn't paying attention for reasons that will become obvious in my bit...

Weather was super again, no drizzle in sight, good F3 if not F4 at times (somewhat easterly and thus rather shifty though), sunshine, warm... I was doing a visitor intro session at rigging time and not watching boats much when it became evident that one of our RS200 sailors was crewless. Foolishly - because I haven't sailed for 6 months on doctors orders (just rescinded), and because I didn't really fit up the sharp end of a 200 even before I added about a stone of lard in the 6 months of inactivity, I volunteered to jump in.

Well, got down to the start, which seemed to be a delayed sequence, not sure what was going on, but anyway the line was short and considerably port end biased, so it was going to be fun on the start line... Actuually it went off rather more smoothly than one might have expected, although there was a lot of ducking and diving as port was definitely the tack to be on... At least half the fleet tacked onto port in a kind of ripple starting with those nearest the CB... Much crossing and place changing up the first beat, I think Mike Curtis RS400 rounded first from our start, but I can't be sure. It was a good tight leg though... At the windward it was a hoist for a long run down the lake, then, as I recall, a shorter somewhat one sided beat at the other side, and then a shyish but not struggling for height reach back to the start. Two hoists and drops each lap, not kind to superannuated unfit forward hands. We were having a pretty good race with Carl Mayhew's 200 and Paul W/A's Rooster whatsit until we foolishly stuffed it in on the run. Age beat beauty to the centreboard, but it was a somewhat extended swim which was rather irritating. Still, we had a bit of a race on making some ground back. It was a d*****d good sail actually, if a bit more energetic than I had planned for a return... I'll ache tomorrow: actually I ache now!

We must be half way through the series now, so there's a bit of form there. In the scratch the top 6 places were Gareth Griffiths (Solo), Carl Mayhew (RS 200), Mike Curtis (RS 400), Mike Storey (National 12), Kevin Pearson (Laser Radial), Paul Wright-Anderson (Rooster 8.1). Six classes in the top 6, so presumably the handicaps aren't too bad. That's Gareth's third win, reckon we'll have to slow him down a bit. In the personal the top 6 were Cj Cavallari (Solo), Kevin Pearson (Laser Radial), Gareth Griffiths (Solo), Dave Baldwin (Laser), Dave Nunn (RS 600) and John Smith (Laser).

Series wise Gareth now leads from Mike Storey and Paul Wright-Anderson in the scratch and Ian and Claire from Kevin Pearson and Graham Potter in the personal... Warming up folks, warming up.