OOD: Tim Wellburn
Safety Boat: James Armitage
Weather: Sunny; Light NE wind, gusting at times.
Six boats launched at 16:10 in a light NE wind, heading for Hammersmith.
Three Lasers took to the water: Joseph in Punt; Rob in Phoebe and Keith in Kaia.
Enterprises were represented by just Lev and David in Porpoise, and by Big Polly, the latter helmed on this occasion by David Berger.
Nick Floyer brought a little variety to the fleet in his attractive wooden Gull (flo).
A run took the competitors as far as Barnes Bridge, but it was beating beyond that, and quite gusty in places. However, the River outran the race, with the tide turning just before Chiswick Pier, so James in the Safety Boat dropped a buoy to shorten the course.
Returning, the boats had a run to near the brewery, but beating thereafter, meeting some renewed gusts after Chiswick Bridge.
Nick put discretion before valour on the return leg and initially sailed on the jib but, confounded by contrary winds, subsequently retired, accepting a tow.
The OOD resumed his post neatly in time to record Joseph and then Rob over the line, separated by less than a minute, followed 5 minutes later by David in his borrowed Ent. Then, a bit under 10 minutes later, Keith pipped Lev to the line by less than 30 seconds.
Tim (OOD)
