Dear Solo Sailors,

We enjoyed champagne conditions on the lake today for the start of our Summer Series – and had a healthy mix of winners including one of the older wooden boats and everyone enjoyed some excellent racing.

Early Summer Points AM

With a southerly breeze gusting up to about 15 knots, our Race Officer Ian Cadwallader treated us to some Olympic style courses and Nigel Appleton looked to be in his element as the hooter saw us all take off at the pin end. Nigel had spied some extra pressure on the left of the beat and he used this to gain advantage before turning right onto the making tack. Those off us who had tacked early failed to find the lift that then took each of Nigel, Rob Mitchell, Dave Oakey and Simon Chapman within yards of the windward mark and we lost out big time.

However if Nigel look commanding in the first race it was Chris Deane who romped away at the start of the second closely followed by myself. I was thinking that we might get away from the rest of the fleet however Rob cleverly spied some compressed air to the right of the first run up against Denny Island and shot past me to challenge Chris.

Chris sailed a brilliant race, he kept his boat perfectly flat upwind, made all the right decisions with the shifts and used his lighter weight to great advantage downwind where he showed impressive speed – planning at times. However it was just coming up to the final leeward mark when Rob managed to just poke his nose ahead of Chris’ transom to win both mark room – and the race overall. Congratulations.

Early Summer Points PM

The wind had dropped 3 or 4 knots by the start of the afternoon’s proceedings and this time it was Rob who managed to get away from each of Dave Oakey, Rick Knapp, Chris Meredith and John Nurser. From my lowly vantage point he seemed to sail the perfect race and Dave did well to hang on to second.

However the excitement was still to come as Chris Meredith stormed clear at the start of our final encounter. I thought initially that I might be able to catch him however he covered me well upwind and found the maximum pressure downwind to extend his lead before winning a very special bullet with myself in second, Dave Oakey third and Rob Mitchell in fourth. Again many congratulations.

Hope to see you all on the water again soon and with many best wishes for some more fantastic racing as the Solo’s Summer Series progress.

Alexx
Solo 4336