Winter Series #5&6
Not many boats out today, but plenty going on, with a few incidents at the start and some boat damage. Add a few capsizes and a broken halyard and the safety boat was kept rather busy. A big thank you to Tim and Rachael for volunteering on the boat.
The normal course had to be changed as C mark had blown to shore, so we used C innner. The day started off looking OK. There were some big gusts sweeping out of the west but it was hard to tell if it was going to settle, and the wind direction was somewhat variable as well. Wind strength is guesstimated between 5 knots and 18+ knots? in the bullets. One day I’ll buy an anemometer..
Tim (RO) advised all sailors to take their own advice as to whether to sail or not. A couple of sailors decided not to venture out. Most of us don’t listen to anyone’s advice let alone our own.
The first race started a bit messily but we made it round the course and had a lot of fun. Some skiff sailors pulled out early and there was certainly one hypothermic Bic sailor at the end, as she’d had a few dips along the way. Lock’s A-class decided to take off from the shore for a sail by itself before the race started, and he followed that up with a capsize later on (due to a big wind shift… so he says) that sent him to his first aid kit and finishing his day sailing.
At one stage we nearly cancelled the second race due to the big gusts coming through and a depleted fleet. Some of us missed the start due to incidents or just falling asleep (me) and Steve Lys sailed off by himself. He must have thought there was a recall (haha). As it turned out only one cat and a trailer sailor managed to finish the second race due to incidents, retirements or gear breakage.
Hope everyone had a good day despite the damage bills. Well done to all who competed today. It was very eventful and maybe next time is a little less exciting.
Thank you Haylee for looking after the control tower. See you all next time.
There will be a couple of videos up on the LSWSA youtube channel. One from Lock and one from me on a Windrush 14. look out for Lock’s full length vid coming soon.