After five weeks of sailing northerly winds, the sailors were greeted with strong winds from the south-west on Sunday 9th May.
The OD, Clive Evison set a course of three buoys with the A buoy at the end of the course set just past Andrew’s Beach, a middle B buoy set on the Berkshire bank at the river bend and taken to port and then a C buoy positioned just downstream of the club OD box again to port with a jibe round. With the wind direction, this meant a long downwind run from the start to the buoy at the end of the course and a series of tacks back to the finish.
The sailors jostled at the start line for the first race and Martin Evans (LN 150) made the best start leading the fleet away with Christine Roy (LN 403) and James Long (OK 1990) bringing up the rear. The wind was stronger as the sailors passed the bend and some strong winds meant allowed for some good planing on the downwind run to the bottom buoy, the sailors were still closely matched by the end of the run and rounded the bottom buoy with Martin leading the Lightning fleet ahead of Jerome Dreux (LN 155) and Christine in third. In the Handicap fleet, Gary Adshead (OK 1998), Andrew Boxer, (OK 2196) and Nick Reuter (L 125425) were closely matched and Nick rounded the bottom buoy first. On the return back to the B buoy, Christine capsized near the bottom buoy and retired from the race. By the end of the first lap the sailors were already spreading out into the places they would take at the race end with Gary leading, Andrew second and Nick in third in the Handicap fleet and Martin holding a good lead over Jerome in the Lightnings.
In the second race, Andrew made an excellent start and led the fleet down to the A buoy with Gary second and Nick third. The Lightnings were led by Martin Evans, with Jerome second and a gap to Christine in third. Into the second lap, Gary took over the lead from Andrew and James closed in on Nick. Christine started to catch Jerome who was falling back from Martin Evans who was racing amongst the Handicap fleet in his Lightning and racing particularly well in the strong winds. The winds picked up during the race with some strong gusts blowing and these caused Christine to capsize near the bend on the Buckinghamshire bank whilst tacking back on the second lap. Gary pulled out a gap on the other Handicap sailors with Andrew second, and Nick battled James for third. At the end of the second lap, Andrew pulled in and retired. James managed to overtake Nick after rounding the bottom buoy on the third lap and soon after, Nick capsized after a strong gust, but a quick recovery and some excellent sailing meant he chased back. Gary finished the race first, with James second and Nick catching up to finish just behind in third.
After lunch, Dave Phillips joined the sailors helming the club Enterprise 23222 with Nick Reuter crewing, Christine decided to sit out the afternoon races after her morning capsizes. The winds were stronger and the sailors jostled for starting positions and were all closely matched on the run down to the first buoy. Andrew started late and trailed the fleet. Between the bend and Andrew’s Beach, Gary hugged the Bucks bank but dropped back slightly after missing a gust that came through the middle of the river where the other sailors were. At the A buoy, Dave rounded first closely followed by James and then Gary slightly behind with the Lightnings which were headed by Martin ahead of Jerome. Gary got into difficulty near the A buoy during a jibe and dropped back a bit further allowing Dave and James to pull away. The Enterprise pulled a gap on the tacks back to the club with James getting stuck in a wind pocket near the brick bridge allowing Gary to gain some ground back. As James and Gary approached the A buoy on the second lap a strong gust came through and James was blown onto the buoy requiring a penalty turn. Unfortunately, he made his penalty just as the wind dropped and lost considerable ground to Gary which he never regained. The race finished with the Enterprise of Dave and Nick with a considerable lead over Gary with James third.
In the final race of the day, Jerome was the only Lightning starter and Andrew decided not to start in his OK. All the sailors made a good start and were closely matched on the run in the strong wind down to the A buoy. Dave again made it around first with Gary second and James third. During the race, James dropped back from Dave, with Dave initially opening up a gap which Gary pegged back on the runs. The race finished with Dave first, Gary second and James a distant third. Jerome retired from the race about half way through.