Monday 23 Jan – Monday Series 1 Race 7
With -5 degrees overnight and ice already on the lake I was expecting to cancel sailing this morning. The ice area had expanded but the Northerly breeze had pushed it to the far side of the lake. With most buoys surrounded by ice, we dropped a mark on the far side clear of the ice as our leeward mark and went for a reaching start as we could only launch from the North side.
We had a steady 3-5 knots of breeze, but being a Northerly, it came with the turbulence it inherits from the Gosport shopping area.
We all had our ups and downs today. Richard (5) hadn’t hit a mark yet today so he chose the starting make in Race 5; Paul (422) found himself clear of the pack rounding the leeward mark but tacked too soon and returned on the wrong side and had to go back; John (277) had rudder problems; and Richard (35) and Mike (270) got entangled a the leeward mark and it was difficult to tell if they were caught together or in the ice. Paul (422) and Alan (56) had a dead heat for third (hence 3.5) in Race 3.
Paul Heaney (422) was our overall winner today with more than his share of the lucky wind shifts with 3 wins and 3 seconds (glad I moved those batteries forward!). Darin Wigg (04) was second with a win and 2 seconds. There was then only a point between the next three boats with Mike Kemp (270) third with one win, Ian Proctor (823) fourth with 2 seconds and Alan Nash fifth (56) with 2 wins.
John Smith (277) also had a win in race 3.
Class Captain Paul Heaney was displaying his personal logo on his mainsail – allegedly it is meant to represent a Kangaroo!! You can also spot the ice cap in the background!
