Overcast, but a pretty decent breeze and no rain. We set a 'd' course - beat, short run, broad reach, shy reach, but a tendency for the wind to swing south between clouds tended to make the last reach rather less shy than we had intended. We set a moderate amount of port bias on the line, but for the sequence there was the aforementioned swing to the south, so it was definitely enough bias for most everyone to pick the pin end. This was particularly the case for the Solo start, where Arthur Phillips, intending a port tack start, found himself having to take rather more transoms than he would have wished...

The Lasers, on the other hand, all picked starboard tack at the port end, resulting in a very tight bunch at the pin and also a lot of agonising on when to risk the tack onto port, which was preferred... It looked like fun from where we were standing...

Early shows were Gareth Griffiths amongst the Solos, and Kevin Pearson very definitely taking the lead in the Laser fleet - indeed into the Solos rather earlier than they would have liked... Mike Curtis was looking well placed early on in the fast handicap fleet, a status considerably enhanced when the wind went just right for them to storm up the shy reach with all 3 sails fully operational...

Mike C was doing well all through the race, but Kevin Pearson was looking very well placed in the Laser until last lap, when a combination of a good gust and shift for Mike and both bad luck with gusts and a mainsheet round the boom cost Kevin dearly.

On handicap Michael Curtis took a safe first in the 400, with Kevin Pearson 2nd in the Laser. Peter Curtis took third in his RS300, Gareth Griffiths 4th in his Solo with Evan Cairns and Rob Pettit 5th and 6th respectively in Lasers - so all the starts and classes pretty well mixed up.

When the personal handicap sums were done it transpired that Mike had won under both systems, albeit tied with Malcolm Barnes (Solo) for first, with Tom Wilson (Solo) 3rd, John Smith (Laser) 4th and Paul Armitage (RS400) 5th.