Sunday May 15th was a day of two halves with two morning races in good wind conditions and an afternoon of constant rain and little to no wind which caused the day’s racing to finish at lunchtime.
The race officer, James Long ably assisted by Andrew Boxer and Duncan Watts arrived at the club to be greeted by light southerly winds which gusted round to easterlies. By 10am, the wind had started to pick up and the race officers set a course with an downstream, upwind start to the C buoy set about 50m below the club jetty and taken to starboard, the sailors then sailed downwind to a B buoy set at the beginning of Cookham bend and taken to starboard and then up a short leg to the A buoy set at the end of Cookham bend midstream and taken to starboard again. They then returned to the finish line passing the B buoy, again to starboard to allow for a course shortening if required.
A reduced fleet of seven sailors took the start, partly due to the weather forecast for the day and partly due to three of the regular sailors being race officers for the day. In the Lightning fleet, Maddie Harris (LN 279) made the best start and took an early lead ahead of Andrew Yuille (LN 446), Mary Webb (LN 178) and Nigel Webb (LN 372). In the Handicap fleet, Nick Reuter Gary Adshead (OK 1998) started well and avoided the congestion at the first buoy to have a healthy lead ahead of Nick Reuter (L 125425) with Clive Evison (P 1355) bringing up the rear after starting late. Maddie led the fleet as they rounded the buoy with Gary second, Andrew third and Clive quickly recovering and passing boats to move into fourth. Clive hugged the bank as they returned back downstream past the club jetty, but the best of the wind was in the middle of the river and Mary and Nick sped past. Maddie continued to lead past the B buoy and round the top A buoy, but then got stuck in a bit of dead wind and several boats passed her. Clive powered passed everyone on the tacks back from the A buoy and led across the line with Andrew second, Mary third and Gary fourth. Clive pulled out a healthy lead during the second lap and would sail a lonely race in the lead until he caught the back of the fleet towards the end of the race. Andrew led the Lightnings and also sailed a strong second lap to pull away as Maddie caught back up to Mary and they engaged in a battle during the second lap with Maddie crossing the line at the of the second lap just ahead. During the second lap, Nick had also managed to find the best of the wind and caught up to Gary, passing on the tacks back downstream to the line and crossed the line with over half a minute gap over Gary. The final lap saw Clive come home with a large gap to second placed on the water boat Andrew. Andrew came home first in the Lightning class and took his first win in the Lightning class and first win for his new boat. Maddie had managed to repass Mary on the final lap and came home second with Mary third and Nigel fourth. In the Handicap class, Nick pulled away further on the final lap to take second with Gary third.
After a short break, the second race started in slightly stronger winds from the south-east and particularly stronger at Cookham bend. Clive sped away from the fleet to take an early lead with Gary and Nick battling over second and Nick held second as they crossed the line at the end of the lap. In the Lightning fleet, they were closely matched around the C buoy and then Maddie took the lead bottom part of the course rounding the A buoy and pulled out a good gap on the tacks back to the line with Andrew and Mary battling over second and Nigel bringing up the rear. The wind proved difficult on the downwind leg at the end of the lap on the first lap, but improved during the second lap and lap times dropped. Clive pulled a much bigger gap during the second lap and Gary passed Nick for second place. Andrew had a good downwind lap at the start of the second lap in the middle of the river and passed Maddie for the lead of the Lightnings which he held on the return tacks and led across the line at the end of the second lap by a small margin to Maddie who had a healthy gap to Mary in third and Nigel fourth. Spots of rain started on the third lap as Clive continued to pull away in the lead with Gary holding second ahead of Nick. In the Lightning class, Maddie retook the lead from Andrew who capsized allowing Mary to close in on him to battle for third. The final lap saw the rains getting slightly heavier and Clive won the race with a huge lead, even lapping Nick on the tacks back to the finish line. Gary thought he had been lapped too and came to shore, but the OD shouted that he was still racing and he continued a slow lap as the heavens opened and the wind died. In the Lightnings, the fleet closed together on the final lap, but Maddie held on to take the win with Andrew second and Mary chasing home third. Nigel was just ahead of Clive as they crossed the line meaning he’d need to complete another lap, so retired, a correct decision to make as the heavens opened.
During the lunch break, the rains continued with very little wind and after some discussion at the end of the break, the race officer abandoned racing for the rest of the day.