The Cookham Reach Sailing Club August Frolic started today (1st August) in very light winds. The first race was delayed until the wind picked up enough for the sailors to take to the water with winds from the west around a few knots with occasional gusts to around 5 knots. The race officer, Keith Panter set a course with a B buoy close to the shore at the river bend taken to starboard, followed by an A buoy about 20 metres upstream in the middle of the river, again taken to starboard. The sailors then sailed back downstream to the C buoy just below the start/finish line again taken to starboard.
Only three sailors started the first race, Andrew Boxer (OK 2196) sailed away from the other two sailors at the start of the race and opened up a good gap with Nick Reuter (L 125425) and James Long (OK 1990) battling for second. All the sailors roll tacked their way up the Berkshire bank to the first buoy using the few gusts that came and sitting still in the river when they didn’t. Andrew held the lead for the rest of the race and finish a considerable distance ahead by the end of the race. Nick and James battled throughout the race with James narrowly taking second.
The second race saw much of the same, with Andrew again taking an easy win after pulling away at the start. Nick and James battled again for second with James managing to pull away slightly towards the end of the race.
The wind picked up just as the second race finished and it was relatively gusty during the lunch break whilst a rain front passed over the clubhouse. After lunch with winds looking more promising for the afternoon, the sailors took to the water and were joined by Clive Evison in the club OK (OK 1695). The wind dropped just before the start, but winds were closer to the forecast five knots than they had been before lunch. All the sailors jostled for position at the start with wind present across the startline and they continued to battle up to the first buoy. About half way up the course, James got stuck in some weed and tried a roll tack to get out but misjudged it and swamped the boat cockpit. After a failed attempt at a dry capsize when the boat came back over on top of him, he managed to recover the boat back upright without getting wet and continued up the course with the other three sailors long gone. Clive Evison took the lead with Andrew close behind and Nick third. James was about half a lap behind with a boat full of water which slowed him considerably and meant some very cautious tacks to stay upright. He retired at the end of the lap to empty the boat for the final race. Meanwhile, Clive continued to lead with a very small gap over Andrew with both pulling away from Nick. On the final lap, Andrew took the lead and won with Clive just behind.
The wind picked up for the final race and Jerome took over the club OK (OK 1695) from Clive. The four sailors again jostled for position at the start line and all sailed towards the Berkshire bank when the race started. Nick took the lead and pulled away with Andrew second, Jerome third and James fourth. By the end of the upstream leg, Nick had a sizeable lead with Andrew second, James now third and Jerome fourth. At the bottom buoy Nick got into trouble with light winds and Andrew taking the lead with James taking Nick soon after. Jerome had dropped back and was a distant fourth. Andrew now held a good lead, but James managed to close up some of the gap by taking a different line up to the B buoy by sailing across to the Buckinghamshire bank and tacking for a direct route to the buoy whilst Andrew roll tacked back and forth on the Berkshire bank. On the final lap, the two were closely matched and James closed to within a boat’s length rounding the top A buoy for the final time. The two were evenly matched on the broad reach and run back downstream and Andrew took the win from James. Nick had got into trouble again at the C buoy at the end of the penultimate lap and Jerome closed up and the two crossed the finish line with Nick just ahead of Jerome.