I was only able to do 1 day of this Regatta but by all account it was the best day. The breeze was 15-22kts north-westerly bright sunshine... what more could you ask for? A lot more boats racing would have been nice. Class 1 had a disappointing turnout of 9 boats, where were the other 12 that had competed at Kip? I was racing with John Corson and team Salamander. The course was a triangle with a gate on the windward leg through the finish line. The start line had an extreme bias to port and a very short leg to the windward mark. Tide was going out till 1500hrs.

Saturdays Races

Using the Heavy No1 we got off to a flying start at the pin end, sailed and tacked on to port shortly after clearing the fleet cleanly. We were 1st round the top mark and away with the .75oz spinnaker up. As we neared the leeward mark the breeze increased slightly to 20kts. The No1 heavy was being pushed to the limits. Although our speed was good, it was hard to keep it in the groove continually. On the next down wind leg we changed to the No3 and really started to motor with height and speed. Finished 1st.

The next race was a re-run of the 1st, except we started with the No3 and used it on all the windward legs. Finished 1st.

In the last race, the line bias was even more port end. We ended up getting caught by starboard traffic before we could get clear. We rounded amongst several boats and it took a while to clear our air and get moving. Finished 2nd to Playing Ft$e the First 47.7.

Overall I was very happy with the boats performance especially as this was the first time we had used the No3. Upwind it allowed us to find a new range of gears for the future. The coarse was short and full of action for everyone on board. This had been a fantastic day to be racing on the Clyde with sun and wind.

On Sunday John sailed well and had 2 more wins giving them 1st overall in Class 1.

Happy Sailing

John Highcock.