The Winter Series served up another challenging day of gusty strong northwesterly winds on Sunday 5th December. The penultimate day of sailing at Cookham Reach Sailing Club saw winds over around 20mph gusting to 30mph plus and the usual Cookham experience of lulls around the course with little wind due to shadowing from trees, etc. The race officer, Gareth Jones assisted by Ray Swinney and Clive Church set a course of a B buoy on the Berkshire side of the river at the bend which was taken to starboard. Then across to the A buoy on the Buckinghamshire bank side of river which was taken to port, then back across and slightly down river to the D buoy on the Berkshire side taken to starboard and finally downstream and downwind to the C buoy but on the Berkshire bank but out towards midstream which was set downstream of the jetty and taken to starboard. This meant a series of tacks up to the B buoy, a beat across to the A buoy, then a broad reach across to the D buoy and then a downwind run to the C buoy.
Three Lightning 368 and three OK sailors took the start and jostled for position in the gusty conditions at the start line. Gary Adshead (OK 1998) made the best start and lead away with Jerome Dreux (OK 2007), Martin Evans (LN 150), Clive Evison (LN 412) and Maddie Harris (LN 279) fighting for position behind and James Long (OK 1990) making his customary terrible start in the first race of the day and bringing up the rear. The strong winds caused plenty of issues for all the sailors and there was plenty of hairy moments with sailors fighting with overpowered boats as they tacked up to the B buoy. The lower part of the course had several areas with lighter winds towards the Buckinghamshire which some of the sailors cleverly avoided, the most difficult route was trying to figure out how to round the B buoy as there was a pocket of lightish wind just before the bend on the Berkshire bank and some of the sailors were slowed by this pocket of dead air. Some of the sailors sailed across to the Bucks bank before a long close haul back across the river to the buoy and a sharp tack around. By the bend, Gary had a healthy lead with Jerome second, Martin third, Clive fourth, Maddie fifth and James sixth. The positions stayed the same on the close haul up the course direct to the top buoy and they rounded and headed across the river. As the back of the field rounded the top buoy they found two rowing boats and their training launches in the middle of the river. Jerome and Clive managed to avoid the rowing boats, but the second one was directed by its launch into the sailing course and ended up between the D buoy and the bank just as Maddie arrived at the buoy. She had to sail to the port side of the buoy to avoid it and sail some distance below it to avoid it. James followed the rowing boat past the buoy and persuaded the boat to move to the centre of the river with some serious shouting. Maddie tacked back up the course to round the buoy ending up a long distance behind in last place and her race ruined. Past the D buoy, the sailors found that the wind wasn’t direct down the river and some had to jybe as they rounded the bend to get across to the buoy. There were some very scary moments when a very strong gust came down the river causing some serious planes, Martin found it was so strong that his bow plunged underwater filling the Lightning’s cockpit, but he clung on and kept going. Gary finished the lap with a 23 second lead ahead of Jerome who had passed Martin, Martin now third. James managed to pass Clive as they rounded the C buoy and took fourth.
James took third place from Martin on the tacks up to the B buoy and Martin fell back to fifth place when he capsized in a strong gust, but managed to save a dunk with a dry capsize over on to the centreboard and back into the boat. James and Clive continued to fight over third during the lap and managed to close some of the gap to Jerome during the tacks up to the B buoy by taking a different line to the buoy using the full width of the river on two tacks whilst Jerome short tacked up the river. Luckily, the wind has shifted during the second lap and the sailors could sail on the same point of sail all the way to the bottom mark.
On the third lap, both of them passed Jerome using this same method with the battle between James and Clive continuing all the way around the course, they were separated by a second as they crossed the line. Gary continued to extend his lead and won the race with a 2 minutes and 40 second gap to second place. James and Clive continued to battle for second place until the tack around the C buoy on the last lap and a wind shifting gust caught James just after a tack leaving him with no power and facing into wind allowing Clive past as he tacked back into power. Clive crossed the line to take second with James third, Jerome fourth, Martin fifth and Maddie fifth. On Handicap, Gary won, Clive second, James third, Martin fourth, Jerome fifth and Maddie sixth.
The sailors resumed for the second race after a short gap with Gary again leading away from Clive, Jerome, James (making a better start this time), Maddie and Martin. Clive, Jerome and James engaged in some jostling all the way up the course with starboard and water calls, by the bend, James had passed Jerome and Clive to take second and they all rounded the bend to chase after Gary. Clive held third around the top buoy with Jerome third. On the downwind run, James managed to close a lot of the gap to Gary and ended the lap fifteen seconds behind and closing. Behind, Clive was a further fifteen seconds back with a gap to Jerome with Maddie fifth and Martin sixth. On the tacks to the B buoy, James closed in further but as they got to the buoy, James was caught in a gust and lost his hand on his tiller and the boat spun around and capsized. He attempted a dry capsize but missed the centre board and was in and the boat wouldn’t right due to the wind pushing it. After fiteen minutes of trying, he decided to retire. Clive was now in second with a clear gap to Jerome and managed to hold the gap to Gary for a couple of laps until the middle of the race when Gary extended it to over three minutes. In third, Jerome also managed to close the gap to Clive and they were separated by ten seconds as they entered the last lap. Maddie maintained fourth with Martin fifth. On the final lap, Gary maintained his lap to win by three minutes 41 seconds with Clive second who had pulled out a gap again and finished 20 seconds ahead of Jerome in third with Maddie fourth and Martin fifth. On Handicap, Gary was first, Clive second, Maddie third, Martin fourth and Jerome fifth.
Gary now leads Clive in the Winter Series with Jerome third. In the Personal Handicap, Gary leads Jerome with James third.