Time for an update

Masters @ Ogston SC 25th & 26th April

Excellent racing. I got a 4th in one race!! I led the race for the 1st lap all thanks to a massive lift to the 1st mark just after the start. It just goes to show how much a good start matters when racing on confined waters. Overall I finished 20th out of 36 according to the results but on equal points with the 19th place and I think my 4th should actually place me 19th. In this picture we are middle of picture near the far bank.

Next event was an open meeting at Dabchicks, West Mersea on the river Blackwater - my home waters really. Day 1 was blown off with 25kts plus wind, day 2 was heavy winds and we started in a F5 which jumped up to a F5-6 after the 1st lap - so windy that we had the main spilling almost completely and we could just keep it flat. The reaches where incredibly fast - the wild untamed Goose returned and we struggled to keep the boat upright espeically as the centreplate kept of coming up under the pressure of water. We completed the 1st race and in rising winds and a squall coming our way Jo and I called it a day and retired from the last two races.

The 20th & 21st June saw us racing on home waters at Snettisham in the combined Lionel Wilkinson regatta and the Enterprise Open meeting. Numbers where low but this mostly down to the race times with the Sunday racing not starting til the end of the afternoon when most vistors really want to be packing up to go home. Having said that the racing was excellent with two races each day in very variable wind conditions. The racing was with one fleet with everyone entered into the Lionel Wilkinson event and the Enterprises also using thier relative finishing positions to cound to the Enterprise open result.

We finished 9th inthe handicap points for the Lionel Wilkinson trophy and 2nd in the Enterprise open.

In this picture we are the chasing Enterprise.

Then to finish off this little round up this last weekend we competed in the Inland National Championships at Pennine SC on the Winscar reservoir up in the Derbyshire Hills. The water level was low which reduced the sailing area and the winds were very light and variable making for very testing conditions. I was not so happy with our result but considering it was my first time at this event I guess it was not bad as 29th out of 47. We did get a 17th in one race but I don't think we got one really good start. I really don't know how the top guys do it but they are so consistantly at the top, they just seem to wiggle through and find the wind and the shifts. I cannot blame the boat, even though she was the oldest there, we were clearly quicker than many others so it must be a case of gaining more experiance on these inland waters, something that I will be getting more of later this year - more of that later.

In this picture we are on the extreme left.