Only five sailors competed on Sunday 23rd November, probably put off by the day starting with heavy rain and no wind. The race officers, Gareth Jones, Alex Jones and Andrew Yuille decided to postpone the race start until the rain stopped and the wind picked up. The wind started to pick up around 11.30am and the race officers set two courses as the wind was frequently changing between a southerly and a south-easterly causing two areas of the usual Cookham sailing course to be sailable and then not. The first race was set between the club and Cookham bend with a simple course of a downwind start from the OD box sailing to the bend where a D buoy was placed midstream just past the bend and taken to port. The sailors then returned downstream and took a C buoy set midstream level with the downstream end of the jetty and again taken to port.
With the wind finally sailable at midday, five OK sailors set off with Dave Phillips (OK 2123) taking a lead by sailing from the Berkshire side of the course, closely followed by James Dyas (OK 212) and Andrew Boxer (OK 2196) on the Berkshire side and Jerome Dreux (OK 2007) and James Long (OK 1990) taking a route more midstream. The buoy was busy as the sailors jostled for position to round it and some had to jybe to round the buoy. They commenced their tacks back up the course and as they reached the bottom of the course the wind was lightest. Jerome and James decided to sail over to the Bucks bank before tacking back across the river to the buoy and approached on a port tack with the other three sailing towards it from the jetty on a starboard tack. Dave and James Dyas rounded the buoy, but the other three met at the buoy with Andrew calling for starboard. James tacked but there was not enough room on the buoy for Jerome and he lost position as he moved out of the way and had to take a wider line around the buoy and dropped to the back. Andrew and James Long continued to battle for third down the course with Andrew taking the position round the D buoy. Dave pulled out a lead during the second lap with James Dyas now a clear second. Andrew and James Long continued to battle for third with James taking it on the third lap but losing it on the fourth. He finally managed to sneak past on the fifth lap and the race finished with Dave first, James Dyas second, James Long third, Andrew fourth and Jerome fifth.
The race officers decided to use an alternative course for the second race due to very light winds on the C buoy. The course would now consist of starting downwind from the OD box, sailing upstream (downwind) to the A buoy which was set about 150m upstream of the bend in the middle of the river. The sailors returned to the bend and rounded the B buoy on the bend and then across the river to round the D buoy. All buoys were taken to port. All five sailors crept off the line in the light winds, with Andrew, Dave and James Dyas starting from the Berkshire bank and Jerome and James Long from the Buckinghamshire side. As they reached the bend, James Long had opened up a small lead with Jerome following him in second, but at the bend the wind picked up on the Berkshire bank and the three on that side caught back up. James Long rounded the A buoy first with Jerome just behind and Andrew a small distance back in third. The five boats then picked their lines back to the B buoy with lots of dead pockets along the course requiring careful choosing to exploit the best wind. At the end of the lap, James Long led from Jerome, Andrew, Dave and James Dyas. On the downwind leg of the second lap, James Long struggled on the Bucks side of the river and lost the lead falling to the back. Andrew took over the lead, but was quickly caught and passed by James Dyas so at the end of the second lap, James Dyas led, Andrew second, Dave third, James Long fourth and Jerome fifth. The wind dropped and meant the A buoy was particularly difficult to approach and round. On the third lap, James Long recovered to third, passing Dave Phillips on the tacks up the course, but Dave retook the position on the fourth lap. On the final lap, Dave caught and passed Andrew for second whilst James Dyas pulled out a small gap in the lead to take the win from Dave second, Andrew third, James Long fourth and Jerome fifth. This had been a very close race with all five boats within about 50 metres for most of the race.
After consultation with the sailors about the wind conditions, the race officers set another new course for the afternoon’s two races. The sailors would head upwind from the line at the OD box to the C buoy, round it to port and sail down to the A buoy rounding it to port, then back upwind to the B buoy rounding to port and back to the line. As with the morning’s races, Jerome and James started on the Bucks bank and Dave, Andrew and James Dyas on the Berkshire bank. They were evenly matched initially and then Jerome took the lead at the bend and rounded the A buoy first with James Dyas second and James Long third. On the tacks back up the course, Jerome held the lead and crossed the line at the end of the lap with a clear lead ahead of James Long and James Dyas, Dave was fourth and Andrew a distant fifth. Dave found a good route around the C buoy at the end of the lap and passed the two James’s into second and then caught Jerome and passed for the lead. James Dyas followed through for second place and the two distanced the rest during the race battling for the lead. Behind, Jerome and James Long battled for third place with Andrew slowly closing the large gap in fifth. Dave won the race from James Dyas, Jerome third, James Long fourth and Andrew fifth.
The five sailors took the start for the final race of the day with light winds at the bottom of the course. The five were very closely matched up to the C buoy and had to take different lines to avoid collision around the buoy. Dave and Andrew managed to round the buoy best with James Dyas just behind, Jerome and James stalling after the jybe on the buoy and dropping back. At the end of the lap, Dave held a small lead over Andrew with James Dyas third, James Long fourth and Jerome fifth. Andrew took the lead on the second lap and held it until the finish for a convincing win ahead of Dave in second. James Dyas took third and Jerome passed James Long for fourth on the penultimate lap.