A good turnout of about 15 boats today I think at Poole for the first open of the year. There were a few nervous people who hadn't sailed much over the winter as the breeze was certainly up while we rigged and sailed out to the course area.
Mike Lennon won the day with a 1,1,1,ocs scoreline, to my 2,2,2,rtd. It was good close racing though, with the lead changing about 4 times in the first race, and Mike just getting through underneath me on the final beat in the first race to win by about a boatlength. Race two he lead initially but I crossed ahead up one of the beats only for him to hook into a nice shift on the right to get me back. A silly capsize mid tack on the first beat in the third race left me with a bit to do, but I had a good run to be third at the leeward mark, and slowly ground down Rod Harris to pass him on the final run for another 2nd. A few big nosedives before the next race resulted in my little wand nipple attachment parting company with my wand bracket just before the start of the fourth race, and unable to fix it on the water, I headed home downwind in lowrider mode - which was rather wet!
A few suffered gear failure in the breeze, with unfortunately Simon Payne in his new UK Mach 2 on its second outing being amongst them. Simon was out early, and looking very fast in the early big breeze. He was high upwind, and looked very solid downwind, but his forestay attachment didn't want to stay out for the races and the mast took on a little bit more rake than intended. An issue with the first prototype boats only, so no big deal, but a shame we didn't get to properly line up against him. First impressions though - that boat is quick.
Light winds forecast for tomorrow...
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