A good muster of boats ready for a D course in a decent breeze and sunshine. Boats included James Armitage and Felicia Biekarck in Zephyr (Enterprise), Keith Clarke (Kaia) and Tamir Gottfried in Lasers, Sam Shemtob and new crew in SY2 (Wayfarer), Nick Floyer in flo (Gull) and Olly Adams and Billy in Spinosaurus (Mirror).
The race got off to a start 5mins late with syncopated start sequence of horns and flags from OOD Heather Adams supported by Sienna. Sadly the tide was on the wane and it was clear that a full course was not possible. With James, Tamir and Keith stretching out and the little boats stuck at Chiswick Bridge, Rob Adams and Kieran in the safety boat put the buoy down just at the upstream end of the old Watney’s Brewery.
Tamir lead James round the buoy with Keith close behind. The tide was exactly slack. The remaining boats managed to clear Chiswick Bridge and its wind shadow and began to make a little progress to the buoy but with an ever-strengthening incoming tide Rob and Kieran offered to move the buoy for the small boats, but both declined and pressed on.
By this time Sam had retired finding it difficult to make it through Chiswick Bridge with a reef in his sail.
To the great relief of the safety boat the wind changed a little more from the S allowing the two little boats to keep in to the Middlesex shore and reach up to the mark and round, Nick’s boat in the lead. The excitement was to see if the deployment of the Mirror’s spinnaker would give them a chance of catching up. Billy’s enthusiastic foredeck work finally got the bulging sail up and filled but wind was becoming more fickle and the positions didn’t change.
The last two boats had a hour of sailing but by the time they got back the Wayfarer, Lasers and Enterprise were all put away.
Rob Adams (from the safety boat)
