Four whitstable boats enjoyed the testing conditions at the merlin inland champs at Bristol Corinthian at the weekend. Whilst I have no idea of final results here’s a little summary of what I know....
The first race on Saturday left a lot to be desired for most of us as we adapted from open water to inland sailing and the most enormous wind shifts as the wind whistled (if you can call it that, as sometimes it was more of a dribble) down and around cheddar gorge.
Things were looking up for Jon and I and Tudor and Hamish in the second race as we finished in thirteenth and fourtenth, but the black flag came out in the third and Tudor and Hamish and Rein and Julie went home early, we managed another thirteenth.
The wind increased on Sunday and although in the same direction, the racing was considerably more enjoyable, with some awesome reaching. Gear failure ended Tudor and Hamish’s first race on Sunday, but they got out for the second one, where they got their best result of the weekend. We also had to retire from the first race with a broken spreader, which couldn’t be replaced in time for the second one. Rein and Julie kept everything together and stayed out to race in the best conditions of the weekend.
Unsuprisingly Chris and Tom were the most consistent, but we all saw a bit of each other throughout the weekend. A challenging and good couple of days of close racing.
Top crewing photo: http://fotoboat.thirdlight.com/viewpicture.tlx?albumid=152089&pictureid=6483514
WELL DONE! and sorrie to hear bout the damage. wen do u think it will be fixed by..? [color=blue]
