A day with extremely light winds caused racing to be first delayed, and then curtailed on Sunday 20th June, the third race day of the 2021 Summer Series.
With winds of a few mph coming from the north-east, the OD Marcus Robb assisted by his AOD’s Maddie Harris and Mark Hanrahan decided to delay the racing until past midday. After the wind picked up slightly the sailors sailed round the bend and discovered enough wind to sail in, so the OD set a simple two buoy course from a remote start set just after the Cookham Bend. The bottom B buoy was set at the bend and taken to port and the upstream A buoy was just above the large willow tree between the bend and Andrews and again taken to port.
The light winds meant a small turnout and the four sailors took the start with Duncan Watts (LN 431) taking an early lead. Three of the sailors including Duncan hugged the Berkshire bank whilst James Long (OK 1990 sailing with a different sail, numbered 2102) sailed across to the Buckinghamshire bank. Unfortunately whilst doing so his mainsheet parted company with the boom and he was left floating back downstream whilst he rerigged the boat. The three sailors were struggling as they reached the willow and tacked out around the willow branches into the strong stream (after the week’s heavy rains) and ligh wind and were swept back downstream. Duncan managed to get around the top buoy and took a good lead over the other Lightning, Jerome Dreux (LN 155) and Nick Reuter (L 125425). Jerome and Nick then made it round the buoy and sailed downwind to the B buoy. James was now a good 3/4 lap behind the rest. The sailors started their second lap with the same issues of enough wind to slowly make it up the course, but struggling to get around the top buoy. Duncan held his strong lead to take the win at the end of lap two with Jerome in second. Nick took the Handicap class win with James tailing far behind, finishing almost 18 minutes behind after struggling at the top of the course.
The sailors waited on the water for a while, hoping for the winds to pick up and Keira Swinney (LN 114) joined the race fleet. The race officer moved the A buoy down placing mid stream alongside the willow tree. At the race start, Nick and Duncan took penalties for being above the line at the race start allowing James, Jerome and Keira to take a good lead up the Berkshire bank. The winds were even lighter now and all the sailors struggled tacking back and forth hugging the bank up to the willow. The race lead changed several times up the Berkshire bank with Jerome initially leading, then James and then Keira, but James got a very small gust and passed Keira and Jerome against the bank whilst they were tacking back out. He managed to maintain this lead as they neared the willow tree.
Meanwhile behind, Nick and Duncan were struggling with no wind and the strong current. Duncan had tacked out into the river and got swept back all the way below the bend. The three leading sailors now had to contend with trying to get round the A buoy in the strong current. The leading boat, James sailed out into the flow and immediately got swept back downstream, so tacked back into the shore. Several further attempts were made and eventually after sailing across to the midstream, a freak wind shift allowed him to tack and sail straight up the river and around the buoy. The wind continued to drop and only Jerome managed to round the buoy too, the other sailors having to retire after many failed attempts. James took the Handicap race win after one lap with Jerome taking the Lightning win.
The sailors stopped for lunch and all agreed that the third and fourth races would not be attempted due to the lack of wind.