The Cookham Reach Sailing Club August Frolic series started on Sunday 6th August with close racing through the field. The sailing conditions were good with north easterly winds of around 10mph, although the lower course was hampered by periods of lighter winds due to wind shadows. Race officers, Andrew Boxer, Clive Evison and Clive Church set a course with a B buoy on Cookham bend taken to starboard, an A buoy was set at the willow trees and taken to port and the sailors returned down to the course past the B buoy taken to starboard and rounded the C buoy positioned mid-stream in front of the OD box and taken to starboard.
Nine sailors took the start of the all-boat Handicap class race and crept up the course in light winds. Gary Adshead (OK 1998) made the best start by timing the start well as he sailed at speed through the line. Behind, the OKs of James Dyas (OK 73), Jerome Dreux (OK 2007), James Long (OK 2130) and Richard Cartwright, crewed by Ray Swinney (E 22174) followed. The best route up the lower course seemed to be to stay out of the current and creep up the bank with lots of roll tacking. Initially, Gary pulled out a good lead over the others, but by the bend James Dyas and James Long had closed the gap and they rounded the B buoy together with Richard and Jerome a distance behind after sailing closer to the middle of the river and losing ground. Duncan Watts (LN 431) led the Lightnings with Mary Webb (LN 19) and Christine Roy (LN 52) starting with storm sails and regretting their decision in the very light breeze on the lower course. Fred Gleed (LN 155) was also struggling with the light wind and dead patches in his first race.
Gary and the two Jameses continued to battle for the lead up the course and rounded the buoy and at the end of the lead Gary led James Dyas by a second with James Long a further couple behind. There was a minutes gap to Richard in fourth and Jerome was battling Duncan Watts (LN 431) for fifth with Mary in seventh, Christine Roy eighth and The wind improved on the lower course towards the end of the race allowing a choice of routes down to the buoy and back up to the bend. The three sailors continued to battle for second place up the course and Richard took second place and held it to the line with James Dyas just a second behind and James Long a further four behind in fourth. James Long found a good route up to the buoy on the second lap and passed James Dyas for second. For most of the rest of the race, the positions remained static, but on the penultimate lap, Richard Cartwright closed right in on James Dyas on the downwind leg who was also slowly catching James Long. As the sailors rounded the C buoy on to the final lap, James Dyas and Richard took a tighter line around the buoy and passed James Long. The three battled all the way back up the course and round the A buoy with Gary already finishing to take the win. Richard managed to pass James Dyas to take second as they sailed to the line and James finished a further five second behind in fourth. Jerome was a distant fifth, Duncan sixth, Mary seventh, Christine eighth and congratulations go to Fred who completed his first race in ninth.
The wind dropped for the start of the second with very little on the lower course and a light breeze above the bend and as such, James Dyas and Christine decided to sit out the rest of the day. Gary and Richard stayed up at the line and were the only ones at the start line as the hooter sounded. They battled up to the bend with a healthy lead over the rest. Quite a few sailors were stuck some way below the line not able to get up towards the start line, Fred was trapped down stream and had to be rescued by the safety boat, James Long took about thirty seconds to reach the line with Mary, Jerome and Duncan about a minute behind that. By the bend, James had closed some of the gap with some roll tacking up the Berkshire bank and decided to take a different route than Gary and Richard by crossing the river to the Bucks bank. He passed Richard for second by the time they rounded the A buoy, behind Jerome moved into fourth with Mary and Duncan fighting over fifth. The light winds meant the second lap was the final lap and Gary held a significant lead all the way to the finish. Richard managed to catch back up to James and they battled downwind to the line for second with James holding a run all the way to the line, whilst Richard jybed and sailed back across to the Bucks bank finding more wind and taking second at the line. Jerome was fourth, Duncan fifth and Mary sixth.
With winds still light and now a light drizzle appearing, Mary decided to sit out the afternoon and Peter Withrington (LN 442) joined the race. It was a close race for the OKs and the Enterprise up to the bend, but by the time they reached the top of the course, Gary had again taken the lead with James Long just behind and a decent gap to the rest and back at the line, Gary led, James second with Peter third, Jerome fourth, Richard fifth and Duncan sixth. They roll tacked back up to the bend where the wind had now picked up significantly on the upper part of the course and James managed to find a good route up and took the lead which he held back to the finish. Gary finished second, Richard passed Jerome for third, Peter was fifth and Duncan sixth.
Richard decided to pack up, so five took the start of the final race of the day. It was a close battle up to the bend with Gary leading, Jerome second, James third, Peter fourth and Duncan fifth. James managed to pass for second after the bend and at the end of the lap Gary had a significant lead over James with Jerome a small gap behind and a few minutes back to the Lightnings which were separated by a few seconds. Above the bend, Gary decided to sail up the river on the Bucks bank which didn’t work and James caught right up and they rounded the A buoy together. Back at the line, James led across the line by a couple of seconds, but got stuck head to wind just after rounding the buoy and Gary retook the lead. James had dropped over a minute back and so Gary came home to take an easy win with James second, Jerome third, Peter fourth and Duncan fifth.