The Autumn Series continued on Sunday 12th September with six sailors competing in the two class series. The wind was extremely light and racing was delayed until after midday for the wind to pick up sufficiently to be sailable. The OD, Kevin Singleton assisted by Cara Ivers set a slightly shorter, but standard for CRSC three buoy course of A buoy just around Cookham Bend taken to starboard, a B buoy on the return leg taken to port and a C buoy taken to starboard and set at the bottom of the club jetty in the middle of the stream.
The Lightnings were started separately from the Handicap class with Mary Webb (LN 178), Nigel Webb (LN 372) and Duncan Watts (LN 431) taking the start. Mary pulled a gap ahead of Duncan over the first lap and Nigel languishing at the start line with no wind on the part of the river that he started from. All three sailors slowly made their way up the course and rounded the A buoy with Duncan serving a penalty after hitting the buoy allowing Mary to pull away further. She held the lead until the finish. Nigel retired at the end of the first lap. The Lightnings would not sail for the rest of the day, frustrated with the lack of wind.
At the Handicap race start, Alistair McMichael (OK 1895), Andrew Boxer (OK 2196) and Gary Adshead (OK 1990) made the best start with James Long (OK 2102) having difficulty at the line. Progress was extremely slow with virtually no wind and it took almost 15 minutes to reach the bend. The wind improved slightly at the bend and gaps opened up with Alistair and Andrew pulling away from Gary with James some distance behind and still struggling. By the A buoy Andrew had taken the lead but the three sailors were still close together. Andrew close to the Berkshire shore rounding the B buoy whilst Alistair sailed in the middle of the stream and had to jybe across to round the buoy. This allowed Andrew to pull a gap which he extended as he rounded the C buoy and extended across the final lap to take the win with the sailors hugging the Berkshire bank to stay out of the stream. Alistair pulled away from Gary as they rounded the C buoy and pulled a minute gap over the second lap to take second place ahead of Gary. James had dropped back almost half a lap and decided to retire at the end of the first lap, frustrated by the wind conditions.
The race officer decided to abandon the second race and the sailors spent their lunch hoping for more wind. This seemed to bear fruit and the winds had picked up just before the start with dark clouds passing overhead. However, as the five minute horn sounded the winds dropped and it was back to the same conditions. This time all four sailors slowly made their way up the course on the first lap. Alistair and Andrew pulled away as they reached the bend and had a good lead over James and Gary. Gary passed James between the bend and the top buoy. For all four sailors, the downstream leg was the most challenging as the wind was changing direction. It meant a lot of jybing as they sailed back to the C buoy even some tacking back and forth across the river at the bend where the wind had shifted. James didn’t read this wind change and Gary pulled away from James on the downwind leg on the first lap. Alistair and Andrew continued to battle over the second lap with Alistair taking the win by nine seconds. Gary came home a lonely third with James again trailing and deciding he’d had enough for the day.
The wind had dropped further for the final race. Alistair immediately took the lead ahead of Gary and Andrew and it took the three sailors five minutes to sail to the ten metres to the end of the jetty. These wind conditions suited Alistair the best and he slowly sailed away and had reached the bend when Gary turned back and retired from second place as he’d only progressed another ten metres in a further five minutes. Andrew slowly plodded on hugging the bank, but Alistair had a considerable gap, although he slowed between the bend and the top A buoy. He still had a good gap as he round the buoy, but Andrew had closed the gap and closed it further on the downstream leg (float?). The race was shortened and ended at the end of the lap with Alistair taking the win after 28 minutes of suffering, Andrew finishing a further four minutes behind.
As the OKs didn’t sail in the first week, these were the first points in the Handicap series and Alistair now leads with two wins from Andrew second with one win.