Apologies for the Famous Five pun for the title, but I couldn’t resist it.
Three OKs and two Lightnings braved the cold weather to sail on Sunday 28th November. The forecast strong winds from the tail end of Storm Arwen had already passed through earlier in the morning and left behind a cloudless sky with light winds of around 7mph gusting into the teens and from the northwest. The race officer David Phillips assisted by Andy Comber set a course of a B buoy on the Berkshire bank at the river bend taken to starboard, an A buoy positioned mid-stream taken to starboard and not far up the river and then a C buoy set just above the club jetty and taken to starboard.
The first race start seemed to creep up on everyone and nobody made a particularly good start with sailors spread across the river and Duncan Watts (LN 431), Clive Evison (LN 412) and Jerome Dreux (OK 2007) made the best start. However, Gary Adshead (OK 1998) recovered quickly and led by the first buoy after choosing the best tacks up to the buoy. The wind was challenging below the B buoy with several areas of the river lacking in wind and several gusts appearing in patches on the river. The B buoy proved difficult to approach with a large area below the buoy on the Berkshire bank having no wind and a wind direction change at the bend. The sailors approached the buoy from different directions with some trying frequent tacks from the middle of the river and others sailing all the way to the Buckinghamshire bank before tacking and sailing back across to the buoy. The different methods seemed to work differently on each lap, probably due to the changes in wind speed. Clive made it around the buoy in the lead with Gary and Duncan following and Jerome just behind. James Long (OK 1990) was some distance behind after a poor start and several bad choices for tacking lines up the initial part of the course. Gary resumed the lead on the sail up the river to the A buoy and rounded the A buoy first with Clive second and Jerome and Duncan fighting over third. These positions stayed the same on the downwind leg and Gary crossed the line at the end of the first lap with a small lead over Clive, Jerome third, Duncan fourth and James some distance behind. On the second lap, Duncan made good progress on the sail from the B buoy to the A buoy with a fairly straight run to the buoy and retook Jerome for third place. Behind, James started clawing back some of the gap from the tail of the field. During the second lap and into the the third, the wind started dropping and was particularly noticeable in the upper course with little to no wind on some parts of the course. This made it tricky to choose routes from the B buoy to the A buoy. Clive read the wind well and closed the gap to Gary and passed him for the lead, Duncan was now a distant third and James caught and passed Jerome with a good run downwind at the end of the second lap and then he chose a different route to the B buoy and passed Jerome just before the B buoy on the third lap. On the fourth lap, Gary caught back and repassed Clive near the A buoy and they raced side by side back to the line, with the shortened course horn sounding at the B buoy and Clive winning the race by one second. Behind, Jerome had retaken fourth place by taking a different route from the C buoy to the B buoy and James got stuck in a wind shift on the Buckinghamshire bank below the B buoy which meant an approach almost back down the course to get across the river to the Berkshire bank to round the buoy losing almost a minute. Duncan also suffered in the light winds on the upper part of the course and Jerome almost caught him as they approached the A buoy but held off to sail down and take third place just ahead of Jerome. On Handicap, Clive won, Duncan was second, Gary third, Jerome fourth and James fifth.
The wind was lighter for the start of the second race, although some gusts came through the course as the sailors prepared for the start and the wind was good for the second start but quickly dropped. Gary, Jerome, Clive and Duncan were closely matched to the B buoy with James again trailing after a bad choice sailing across to the Berkshire bank and finding a wind pocket on the tack back across the river to round the buoy. The two OKs managed to pull away from the Lightnings on the upper part of the course and Gary led Jerome at the end of the first lap with Clive third and Duncan in fourth. On the second lap, Gary pulled out a good gap in the lead with a good line up to the B buoy, Clive closed the gap to Jerome in second and Duncan dropped back. On the third lap, Jerome considerably closed up the gap to Gary by sailing a different line to the B buoy and at the end of the laptop the gap was reduced to under 30 seconds. Behind Clive was now a lonely third and James passed Duncan for fourth. The final lap saw Gary extended his lead again as the wind dropped considerably and won the race by over a minute with Clive third, James fourth and Duncan fifth. On Handicap, Gary won, Clive was second, Jerome third, Duncan fourth and James fifth.
Gary has now taken the lead in the Winter Series with Clive second, Jerome third and James fourth. The four are separated by five points, so it will be closely contested in the final two weekends of the series. In the Personal Handicap, Jerome still leads with James second and Gary in third.