The June edition started off on a rather chilly June day with a rather chilly northerly. There was plenty of cumulus up above the boundary later and a very generous quantity of sometimes challenging gusts and loads of shifts. It was pretty similar to the previous Wednesday evening, but less extreme. It warmed up considerably during the day, and ended up with a very pleasant afternoon, but that's another story... Anyway, the track, as I remember, was a long beat, a somewhat one sided long run towards the other end of the lake, a short shy reach followed by a *very* short beat, and then a longish reach back to the start. It sounds like quite a high speed track when written down like that , but somehow it didn't quite work like that - everyone got to have a bit of a blast at times, but there was little sustained high speed sailing.

Peter Curtis got to the top mark first from the fast start, with an inside overlap on your scribe and Mike Storey's National well in attendance too. For some reason this wasn't one of my better races for spotting what was going on: too many handling errors in the boat perhaps... Peter managed to keep his head in front pretty much all the way round. The front end of the fast fleet seemed to lap the tail end of the slow fleet (starting two minutes later for this series) awfully quickly and I gained the impression - and the results seem to bear me out - that something went badly wrong for their first lap - the wind not coming when they needed it perhaps... This was something of a feature of the race, especially the long beat: just about everyone, even Peter, seemed to get stuck with no wind or big headers from time to time on that leg. Easily the star of the slow fleet was George Woolhouse in his Topper - he managed to avoid getting lapped by Peter and was ahead of several Solos on the water, which wants a bit of doing in a Topper in any conditions, let along something quite as spiteful as this day could be...

Results: well Peter won by quite a margin. No doubt clear air almost all the way round the track didin't do any harm either, but I was rather better placed to watch his sailing than I might have preferred and he was certainly handling the tricky little 300 very nicely in the conditions. Mike Storey, in his N12 pipped Rob Pettit's Laser for third place, and Rob was followed by four more Lasers, Brian Greenaway, Tony Butler & Stephen Day  being the three (in that order) who made the top 6 and the namecheck. These were all from the first start, George Woolhouse in 8th being the first from the slow fleet start: only two others from that start making the top 15.

Of course we run the personal handicap scoring alongside for this series, and George won this handily. 2nd was Ian Hamilton in a Topaz(=Topper) Xenon, followed by Dave Thorpe in a Solo, then Greenaway and Butler scoring the same places as the scratch race, and Dan Hemmant, also in a Laser, rounding off the top 6.

With three races gone we have the start of a series. I've scored it with one discard, which isn't technically correct according to the SIs, but gives a better picture than 1 to count from 3... The results are here. In the main scoring system Gareth Griffiths (Solo) is just leading from Peter Curtis and Rob Pettit, who are on equal points. John Leheup (Laser) is a clear 4th, with Brian Greenaway and George Woolhouse 5th and 6th. Under the personal handicap (really an improvers trophy since the handicaps are based on the previous year's results) George is leading on tiebreak from Ian Hamilton. Brian Greenaway is 3rd and somewhat to his suprise your scribe is 4th with the crazy Canoe. Gareth Griffiths is 5th, but ineligible for prizes, whilst 6th is currently held by the evergreen octagenarian Solo sailing Frank Beanland.

I missed last month's race, hence no report, although I understand it was very light indeed.

I nearly missed this month's race too, but that was owing to being upside down near enough to the bank to get the mast in the mud and wipe out the windex... Oh well... I arrived at the line just in time to join a queue of returning Solos, so I can only conclude that their start was a most eneregtic and well thought out affair. There was, I guess, about a force three breeze, maybe lower end of F3, and enough for the Canoe to get through the Solos easily enough. Mr Curtis' RS300, on the other hand, was distinctly headed horizonwards, followed Rob Pettit and Terry McCarthy, who seemed to be having a good old battle in their Lasers.

Judging by the lapchart. which I have in front of me at the moment, Gareth Griffiths took an early lead amongst the Solos. As I rememeber the course was an unwrapped Olympic of beat, shyer reach, broader reach, a long fetch/ultra shy reach rather than a second beat, and then a run. The gustier versions of the ultra shy reach were very welcome on Team Canoe, but sadly not enough to catch Mr Curtis, even the one time wehere a rogue shift caused him to tack up to the windward mark when no-one else had to... There were enough shifts anout that there were definitely right and wrong ways up the beat, and compressions gusts were frequent on the long run, so catching or missing these was crucial. Suprisingly for windier conditions Gareth won in his Solo, with Rob Pettit second in his Laser, Peter Curtis third, and Terry McCarthy 4th. Paul Playle took 5th in another Solo, and John leheup 6th in a Laser, so the classes were pretty well mixed up.

We also have the personal handicap runing for the Anniversary series, and some different names featured in this. Ian Hamislton took the race in a Topper Xenon, followed by George Woolhouse and Caroline Baldwin in Topper Toppers (!). Terry McCarthy took 4th, Paul Playle 5th, and Peter Renn took 6th in another Solo.

Full results:  read 'em here...

Well. last race of the series, and we got to the club and... nothing. Pretty much flat calm. There was, I suppose a vague westerly drift, but you had to watch very carefully to catch the cups on the anenometer moving at all. It was sunny though, and once the morning chill had dissipated it certainly wasn't cold. But windy it wasn't.  Well, you have to do something I suppose, so the race team set a smallish quadrilateral course in the orientation of the vague trend of the wind... Funnily enough, in spite of the almost zero wind, this was one thing that worked - what air movement there was did pretty much come in the same direction all the time...

The first attempt at a start was abandoned at the last minute and reset because folk just weren't arriving at the start in time, but just 6 minutes delay gave us all an opportunity to be on the line at time. It has to be said that we didn't all take it: the fast start especially was in no wind at all, and some hadn't even crossed the line by the time Solos and the like started two minutes later, and even the leaders had managed no more fifty or a hundred yards of progress by the time the Solos - hot favourites in the conditions - made their start. Gareth Griffiths predictably made a good start in the Solos, and by the windward mark - was it twenty minutes later - he was right up with David Bean, the leading Laser, and Andy and Tessa Groves in their Scorpion. These three took out something of a lead on the next group - Solos and Lasers, ad they headed across the first reach and down the run. At the end of the run, maybe a quarter of an hour further on, these three were in much the same order, and the shorten course gun was heard. The wind had gone round some and dropped, and it was looking pretty much like a run to the finish... But a desperate crawl it was, drifting towards the finish line.

Or it was for them... Things were slightly different two or three minutes or so later when the next goup arrived, including some of the more cunning old foxes in the club... And Mike Lipscombe spotted something odd about the wind. He just had a feeling that something was happening of to the left and went high, followed, by, amongst others, that oldest of wise heads Frank Beanland. They had seen something coming in on the left... The gust, such as it was (perhaps breath is a better word) missed the leading group completely. Gareth, trying absolutely everything to get in the current of wind, just couldn't get there, hampered no doubt by the rapidly compressing pack behind the providing a major obstruction to the breeze. Meanwhile Mike Lipscombe was happily sailing round everyone and crossed the line first. Seven second later the Groves' Scorpion crossed, 9 seconds after that Dave Bean's Laser, another 5 seconds and Mark Timbs' Laser crossed and two more seconds, tensest of all, a dead heat between the frustrated  Griffiths and the "rapidly" catching Frank Beanland. Another 20 seconds later David Lawton crossed for the whole bunch of 7 crossing in 45 seconds. The rest followed in slowly: very slowly in fact.

Predictably then it was Solo 1,2,2,4 on handicap, Lipscombe, Griffiths/Beanland and Lawton, with Dave Bean and Mark Timbs filling out the top six. Of course we also have the personal handicap to consider. Same top six - slightly different order: Lawton, Beanland, Lipscombe, Griffiths, Bean, Timbs.

So what of the series? Peter Curtis and Gareth Griffiths had first and second closed out before the start. In the end the next place was settled on the Commitee boat! Arthur Phillips average points of 5.3 meant that Dave Bean would have had to win to take third place, so they were 3rd and 4th. Dave's 5th was, however, just good enough to keep him ahead of Peter Cotterell in 5th place, whilst Mike Lipscombe's win gave him 6th overall on tiebreak. In the personal handicap series David Lawton's first was exactly what was needed, and he took the series from an absent James Curtis (Feva). The third highest points score went to the "ineligible-for-the-series" Peter Curtis so third place went to Tony Butler (Laser), also absent. Dave Bean took 4th, Brian Greenaway 5th and Dave Clark (Solo) 6th place.

Jim Champ

Windy. Quite seriously windy in the gusts. I would guess that it was averaging top of F4/5 and gusting 6. I'm not going to be the best of reporters having been late for the (late) start and seriously preoccupied thereafter. Mike Curtis, the Race officer commented, that had he actually started the sequence on the dot of 10:26 there would only have been about three starters...

What do I remember... Peter Curtis was more or less seen leaving in his RS300. He commented afterwards that it was one of those races where pretty much everything seemed to go right. Well for Peter maybe... The course was beat, broad reach, run, short beat and then a very broad reach come semi run back to the start. As well as being strong the gusts were fairly nasty. Unusually for a westerly breeze it was fairly unstable, especially up near the windward bank, where there were a lot of those nasty eddying gusts which are ore ususally a feature of easterlies. I particularly remember one sneaky gust, which on reflection must have been two superimposed, which first lifted and then a second or so later violently headed.

What else... a fair bit of swimming went on, and one or two kites were left in the bag which should really have come out. A tip for those new to spinnakers. The big coloured thing is really your friend in strong winds because the extra speed makes gybing easier and safer (less apparent wind) and because the sail also steadies the boat. Provided you don't let it collapse the drive from a spinnaker tends to be steadier and more tolerant of shifts and gusts, whereas if the mainsail is doing all the work it tends to be a lot more on and off. People will also tell you the spinnaker lifts the bows. This is a myth I'm afraid, but it certainly feels as if it does because the boat is steadier and safer. The fly in the ointment is of course getting it up and down, but provided you pick your moment and your gust its almost always possible. Its a lot easier with asymmetric sails where the crew doesn't have to go forward to put a spinnaker pole on the mast: in the days of pole kites I can remember reaches where I wanted to put the kite up but could never risk vacating the back of the boat to do it...

Results? Peter won by a country mile. Mike and Alex Storey were second in their National 12, then Simon Bean, (new member?) David Evans and John Smith in Lasers, and Chris and I believe Alistair Smith rounded out the top six in their Scorpion. Very good results especially for the two handers, who did not, shall we say, have excess crew weight on board. Under the personal handicap results were similar - not suprising in such demanding conditions, but the Storeys won with Peter C second, the Scorpion Smiths 3rd, John (Laser) Smith 4th, Charlotte McCarthy 6th in her Laser Radial and David Lawton (Solo) 6th.

Now the series - We're past halfway through with four races of the seven complete. If we count two races from the four the top 6 are Peter Curtis (RS300), Gareth Griffiths (Solo), Mike Storey (National 12), Arthur Phillips (Solo), Carl & Julie Mayhew (RS400) and Brian Greenaway (Laser). The personal handicap results are very close and with two discards the top six are Tony Butler (Laser), James Curtis (RS Feva XL), David Lawton (Solo), Peter Curtis (RS 300), Malcolm Barnes (Solo), and Brian Greenaway (Laser). (Almost) anyone's game yet in either series though...