The sailors arrived for the start of the August Frolic on Sunday August 7th to find no discernible wind. The race officers, Clive and Tricia Evison decided to delay the start and the wind did start to appear after 11am and they set a simple course with an A buoy just above the Cookham bend taken to port and a B buoy set out from the club jetty and also taken to port. By 11.30am, the eleven sailors were ready to start, but knew it was likely to be a challenging day with the extremely light winds. Throughout the day, the sailors complained of extremely shifting winds with sailors having to contend with almost continual changes of point of sail throughout the course, changing lap to lap.
A fairly good turnout of eleven boats started the day’s sailing with changes at the lunch break, the sailors consisted of Andrew Yuille (LN 446), Keira Swinney (LN 114), Nigel Webb (LN 372), Mary Webb (LN 178), Tricia Evison (LN 412) and Peter Withrington, recent participant in the Lightning Open who was looking to join the club and sailed club boat LN 304. In addition, were Gary Adshead (OK 1998), James Long (OK 1990), Andrew Boxer (OK 2196), Richard Cartwright and Ray Swinney (E 22174) and Nick Reuter (L 125245). Andrew Boxer made the best start with Richard Cartwright close behind and these two led around the top buoy with the rest chasing just behind. Richard had a clear lead by the end of the first lap with Andrew second, Gary third and James fourth and Tricia just behind in fifth. Andrew Yuille was a lonely sixth and there was a large gap to the rest of the fleet with Nick sixth ahead of the other Lightnings. Richard continued to lead during the second lap, but Andrew collided with the top buoy and had to serve a penalty turn allowing Gary and James through. Behind, Andrew Yuille passed Tricia for fifth on the second lap with a large gap to the rest. Andrew started the chase back from his penalty and found some good lifts at the start of the third lap to pass James, then Gary and catch up to Richard, passing him at the end of the lap to take the lead. He held the lead for the final lap to take the class win with Richard holding on to second place. Andrew Yuille had also managed to read the wind well and had passed James on the third lap and then Gary on the final lap to take third on the water. Gary finished fourth and had pulled away from James on the third lap when James was caught in a dead spot below the top buoy. Tricia finished sixth and final sailor on the lead lap ahead of Nick seventh, Peter Withrington eighth, Mary ninth, Nigel tenth and Keira eleventh. Nigel decided to stop for the rest of the day after the frustrating first race.
The sailors lined up at the start for the second race with some nice gusts passing through the course. Some of the sailors decided to take the Buckinghamshire bank side of the start line and tack across to the Berkshire side, but the wind dropped as the race started and Andrew Boxer and Gary Adshead made the best start from the Berkshire side of the start line with a close haul port tack allowing them to creep up the bank before having to roll tack back from midstream. James Long and Richard Cartwright had sailed from the Bucks bank and were left for dead on the start line. Gary found a good route in the light winds to lead around the top buoy and pulled away from Andrew on the return leg. James and Richard had recovery from their awful starts and passed the Lightnings near the top of the course so that James was third at the end of the lap, Richard fourth, Tricia fifth, Nick sixth and Mary seventh. The gaps at the front held static on the second lap with Gary leading from Andrew, James third and Richard fourth. Mary closed the gap to Tricia to battle for fifth. The wind started to pick up on the third lap and Richard closed the gap to James with Gary and Andrew pulling away in first and second. Mary managed to sneak ahead of Mary on the downwind leg to take fifth place starting the final lap. Gary came home a clear winner ahead of Andrew and behind James managed a good final lap in the stronger winds to close the gap on Andrew, but was still over a minute behind at the finish with Richard fourth. Mary extended her fifth place on the final lap to Tricia sixth, Andrew Yuille passed Nick on the final lap and came home seventh, Peter Withrington ninth and Keira tenth.
Richard and Ray sat out the afternoon races and the sailors were joined by Martin Evans (LN 150) and Peter Wyatt crewed by family members in Enterprise 22828 and Jerome Dreux (OK 2007). The winds were slightly better for the first race of the afternoon and the sailors were optimistic of better racing. Andrew Boxer and Andrew Yuille sped away from the rest of the fleet to take a clear lead up to Cookham Bend on the first lap and fought for the lead all the way around the first lap. Behind, the rest Martin Evans had taken third place and pulled away from the rest of the fleet who were closely battling – Jerome, Peter Wyatt, James, Gary, Nick, Mary and Tricia rounded a congested top buoy. Back at the line, Andrew Boxer had opened a small lead over Andrew Yuille who were almost two minutes ahead of third and three minutes ahead of most of the fleet! Behind, Martin was third with a minutes lead over the Wyatts in fourth, Jerome fifth, Gary sixth, James seventh and Nick eighth. The lead remained static on the second lap but third place was now firmly the Enterprise’s as it caught and passed Martin during the lap. Gary had also pulled away from the other two OKs, James had managed to pass Jerome who had lost out in a dead spot just below the bend and also been passed by Nick and Peter Withrington. The Wyatts closed the gap to Andrew on the third lap and Jerome managed to recover his lost positions into sixth spot with a small gap over James. The positions remained the same for the next few laps with the gaps also remaining static as the wind increased again making sailing more predictable. Gary passed Martin Evans on the penultimate lap for fourth spot. Andrew Boxer held his small lead over Andrew Yuille on the final lap to take the win on the water, behind Gary closed the gap on the route to the top buoy on the last lap and sailed a different line downwind to the line to pass the Wyatts just before the finish and take third place. Martin was fifth, Jerome came home sixth, James seventh, Nick eighth, Tricia ninth, Peter Withrington tenth and Mary eleventh.
The fleet was dramatically diminished for the final race of the day with Nick Mary, Tricia and Peter Withrington sitting it out. The lighter winds returned at the start of the race, so perhaps they had made the right decision! James made the best start in his OK and led away from the middle of the river and managed to find a lift which took him to the bend. He led around the top buoy with the rest of the sailors battling over second, he continued to lead at the end of the lap. Gary managed to find some good lifts heading up the course on the second lap and passed around the top buoy holding a small lead over James at the end of the lap with Andrew Boxer third, Peter fourth, Andrew Yuille fifth, Jerome sixth and Martin eighth. Jerome had an excellent third lap, finding an amazing lift down the Berkshire bank at the beginning of the lap which allowed him to sweep past Andrew Yuille, Peter, Andrew Boxer on the way to the bend and he passed James going around the top buoy. James came back on the return leg and led across the line to start the final lap. Jerome managed to get stuck in a dead spot on the final lap and lost all his gained places ending up in a distant last place. James closed the gap to Gary on the tacks up the course on the final lap with Andrew chasing. Andrew found a better set of tacks below the top buoy and passed around the buoy holding on to take second place at the line with James third, the Wyatts fourth, Andrew Yuille sixth, Jerome seventh and Martin eighth.
Note : Peter Withrington does not score points in the August Frolic as a non-member.