Anyone’s Game – Enterprise Report 2012-09-12
Gentle WNW breeze – 6-10 knots.
Course – South Mallard, Dunstone, Melampus, Liberty Yachts
It’s the penultimate race and just 2 points separating 2nd to 4th it’s a key race to secure 2nd place in the Summer Series.
Off the line it was a fetch to South Mallard from the pin end of the line. Peter Hinkling pulled a ripper from the far end and was first to South Mallard. Super hot on his heels was Egg & Spoon and No Handles.
The broadreach down to Dunstone allowed the boats behind to blanket those in front keeping all the boats close together. In the Spoon we managed to get down the right hand side of Dyskinetic to secure and overlap at Dunstone. We promptly threw that away with a scruffy rounding lettting No Handles come through from 3rd to 1st by holding a tighter line around the buoy.
The wind was properly shifty and yards were won and lost by taking 50m nibbles into a gust. Martin and Anna (fully Pocahontas tonight) did well and stretched out a 40m lead from the Spoon by Melampus.
Unusually the Spoon was going quite well down wind and we managed to get back to 10m behdind by Liberty Yachts.
By South Mallard it was quite close with No Handles in the lead followed by the Spoon and Different Shade 100m further back.
The leg to Dunstone was a bit floaty and we got onto Martins breeze right before he caught a huge piece of weed on his rudder. We went by to windward whilst Martin was wrestling mermaids or whatever caused the handbrake. In the meantime sneaky beaky Gandy and Alan in Different Shade had a private gust down the left and closed down the 100m gap to challenge for the lead.
Around Dunstone it was all going on with the Spoon, followed by No Handles and Different Shade in close company. Gandy took a big flyer out to sea which was let’s say less than successful. Egg & Spoon kept Martin company up the beat and stayed in front to take the win.
Everyone was at or near the front in this race but by the end we finished in series order.
Check out the results to see what can be done in the last race of the series.
After sailing was about RIB duty and Race officer rotas. Check out the Safety Rib squad post for more details.
