OOD: Nick Jeffery; Safety Boat: Sam Shemtob; Weather: fine, wind SSE F3. A lovely day.
Five boats were launched on a rising tide for a 10.00am start on Course B in sunny weather with a gentle breeze. A beat down towards Chiswick Bridge, where Sam laid the windward mark, saw the three crewed Enterprises, tacking close to the shore, pull ahead of the single handers – Ben in his Laser Envy and Tim in his Wanderer Ait Knots. James’ Zephyr, crewed by Felicia, completed the first lap in 17 minutes, 30 seconds. Henry and Mary’s Big Polly crossed the line a couple of minutes later at 19:55 with Lev’s Porpoise, crewed by his son David, hot on their transom, five seconds behind, at 20:00 minutes. Less than three minutes later, Ben completed his first lap, while Tim crossed at 34 minutes and decided to retire rather than slog against the tide again. On the second round, Porpoise pulled ahead of Big Polly by nearly a minute, while Zephyr stretched its lead to over five minutes. Envy touched the leeward mark and swiftly re-rounded, three minutes before Zephyr came in to win the three-lap race after 51 minutes 18 seconds. Porpoise and Big Polly looked neck and neck as they appeared round the bend on their third lap, jibs goose-winged, but Porpoise pipped Big Polly to finish second with Big Polly coming in third after 1 hour 5 minutes and 48 seconds just 15 seconds later. Six minutes after that Envy finished and the fleet just made it under Kew Railway Bridge before the tide was too high. There was some discussion between Lev and Henry about a missing 360-degree penalty but no protests were lodged or retirements made…
Nick Jeffery
Next week, Coronation week, it’s an A/B course starting at 15:15, to be followed by an informal barbeque at the arch.