By the time 5 races were complete most of the skippers were suffering with weed on their keels. Not deterred the RO moved the course on to the smaller lake at Gosport and racing continued. John Cleave sailing a Britpop leads by 5 points after 18 races were completed. An excellent return considering the wind strength. here were also good performances from Martin Dovey, our ‘MYA Guest Skipper’ sailing his own design (D2S), achieving 1st place in more than one occasion and Chas Jordan scoring a 4th place with his “heavy wind” Lintel.
As for me, in the first 4 rounds I was unlucky with the dreaded weed, but after moving to the smaller lake my fortune took a change for the better. This regatta gives me a chance to sail something different other than a ‘Shiraz’. The yacht I am sailing is a proto-type yacht that is much thinner and more compact than my usual IOM.
Day 1 Scores.
1st John Cleave (Britpop) 35pts
2nd John Taylor (Rubix) 40pts
3rd Roy Stevens (Pikanto) 50pts
4th Mike Nichols (Home Build) 65pts
5th Martin Dovey (D2S) 68pts
6th Vinnie Zammit (MX14) 73pts
7th Mick Chamberlain (Britpop) 77pts
8th Chas Jordan (Lintel) 100pts
9th Lester Gilbert (Pikanto) 110pts
10th Geoff Woodmason (Widget) 121pts
11th Malcom Donald (Widget) 170pts
12th Mervin Smith (Sofar) 195pts
Today in the heat and with hardly any wind at all (0-3mph), Gosport Club played host to the second day of the regatta. John Cleave sailing his ‘Britpop’ held a 5 point slender lead on myself. The other 10 skippers were battling it out for the other places. However it was not just individual positions that counted as the team trophy was up for grabs too. The Navy team consisting of (John Taylor, John Cleave, Mike Nichols) held a commanding lead on the Army team of (Lester Gilbert, Vinnie Zammit and Mick Chamberlain).
As the racing began I found myself in the lead regularly and at one point in the morning I seemed to have pulled back the 5 point gap between John Cleave and myself. However, during the second part of the morning, I would regularly lead the first half of the course. Then repeatedly, I would lose the wind in my sails and soon after 2 or 3 boats would either catch up or pass me by. John Cleave would take advantage of my misfortune and by the time we had stopped racing for lunch, John had increased his lead to 10 points.
In the meantime Lester Gilbert managed to get two wins and Martin Dovey was beginning to make a challenge on 3rd place overall. After lunch there was a delay in sailing as there simply wasn’t any wind to set a course, when the wind did finally come in the direction was from the opposite side. Racing started and by now for me it was all about trying to stay as close as possible to John Cleave and his ‘Britpop’. Races were running out but in the end I managed to close the gap to just 6 points overall and that’s how it finished.
1st John Cleave (Britpop) 64pts
2nd John Taylor (Rubix) 70pts
3th Martin Dovey (D2S) 115pts
4th Mike Nichols (Home Build) 117pts
5th Mick Chamberlain (Britpop) 125pts
6th Vinnie Zammit (MX14) 139pts
7th Lester Gilbert (Pikanto) 140pts
8th Chas Jordan (Lintel) 170pts
9rd Roy Stevens (Pikanto) 181pts
10th Geoff Woodmason (Widget) 262pts
11th Mervin Smith (Sofar) 301pts
12th Malcom Donald (Widget) 313pts