A small turnout of seven sailors endured extremely light winds at the start of the Cookham Reach Sailing Club Autumn Series on Sunday September 3rd.
Race officers Clive Evison and Christine Roy set a simple course of a C buoy about twenty metres midstream above the OD box taken to starboard and a D buoy set about fifty metres below the jetty taken to port.
Six sailors took the downstream start of the first race with north, northesterly winds of a few mph. Andrew Boxer (OK 204) made the best start starting midstream and sailing across to the Bucks bank where there were slightly stronger winds. Behind the three Lightnings of Mary Webb (LN 178), Keira Swinney (LN 114) and Nigel Webb (LN 372) battled down to the D buoy and James Long (OK 2130) followed the rest having not made it to the start line for the race start after being late onto the water. At the end of the first lap, Andrew had a healthy lead over Gary with James trailing in the Handicap fleet and Nigel led Lightnings ahead of Mary and Keira. Andrew continued to lead through the second lap, in the Lightning fleet Nigel and Mary were stuck with James rounding the D buoy at the bottom of the course and sat for some time in no wind until a very slight puff allowed them to make headway and Mary took the lead in the Lightning class. On the third lap, Gary closed in on Andrew and they crossed the line together to start the fourth lap, James was now almost a lap behind. The wind picked up at the top end of the course for the fourth lap and Andrew found a better route down to the C buoy and pulled clear again, James also exploited the stronger wind and closed the gap to second but was still half a lap behind. Keira passed Nigel for second in the Lightning fleet who struggled rounding the D buoy again and he retired at end of the fifth lap. Andrew held his lead for the rest of the race to win with Gary second and James having a terrible final lap after getting stuck at the D buoy and crawling to the line along with the two Lightning sailors.
Nigel decided to sit out the rest of the day after the frustrating first race and Ray Swinney sailed Keira’s Lightning after similar frustrations. James was happy to be at the start line for the start of the second race, but Andrew still managed to find the best route down the D buoy and rounded it ahead of James and Gary. In the Lightnings, Mary led Ray. It was all looking good with four minutes laps compared to the tawdry eight minutes one in the first race. The positions and gaps remained similar through the second lap and then the wind died. In the Handicap class, Gary passed James into second and closed right on to the stern of Andrew’s box and in the Lightnings it was a close battle between Mary and Ray. On the fourth lap, James got stuck rounding the D buoy and sat for several minutes in dead wind before giving up and retiring. On the final lap at the C buoy, Andrew floated on to the buoy and then rounded it again trying to serve his penalty and was DQ’d for sailing the wrong course leaving Gary to come home to win. In the Lightnings, Mary had pulled away from Ray to win the class.
Four sailors started the third race as Mary and Ray sat out the afternoon and Peter Withrington (LN 442) joined the small fleet. Gary made the best start and had a clear lead at the end of the lap with James second and Andrew third. Peter started late and was a considerable distance behind at the end of the lap. On the second lap, James got stuck heading back upstream from the D buoy again and decided to retire leaving Gary and Andrew to battle, although Gary had a clear lead of about half a lap for the rest of the race and finished with an easy win.
The fourth race was abandoned due to lack of wind.