After the comparatively pleasant weather that we have had for the this year’s warm up series, conditions for the ice breaker didn’t look that inspiring when I first arrived at the club. Little to no wind. No water as it was low tide. And a constant drizzle that managed to make you both wet and cold.

Still we had ten hardy souls sign up for the event and with other members making their excuses and still more at the club checking things out it might have been a slow start to the seasons racing but it showed lots of promise.

Tony set a longish course to kick things off but with room to shorten if he had to. You see although the wind had developed into a F2 to a weak 3 at the start it was expected to build as the day went on and a F4-5 could be expected. The only question was when was that going to happen!

Everyone was well behaved at the start with a fetch off the line that quickly developed into a reach down towards Gillingham. Here we turned left and back onto a close fetch towards the first mark at 26. The fleet quickly split into 3 groups with the two Altos, the B14 and Martin and Ian in there Blazes in group 1. Then it was Jason and Phil in the two more Blazes followed by Rebecca and Nick in there Lasers.

At 26 we turned North onto a beat (the wind was coming from the North, didn’t I mention that) to 27 and then onto 23. At this point the Tim and Jo held a slim lead over Chris and Ian in the Alto race. Ian had a slim lead over Martin in the first Blaze race with Bobby and Frankie just behind. Jason was happy to point out to any one that would listen that he was in front of Phil in the second Blaze race and Nick and John were in front of Rebecca in the Lasers.

From here it was another fetch to 20 with a short beat over to Autumn and then the quick blast back home. I say that because although it was slow to build the wind built significantly on the way back, and some of the fleet had a pretty exhilarating ride home. The finishing order remained pretty much the same although things got jumbled up a bit when the handicaps were taken into consideration.

Just as Martin crossed the finishing line he had a shroud pin come out so had to limp to shore with just the lowers holding the mast up. Thankfully for him he got away with this with no damage done, Phil however wasn’t so lucky. His mast failed just above the gooseneck when he got into Gillingham reach and is beyond repair. So I suspect he will be writing a letter to his insurance company at the same time that I am typing this.

Still it was a good start to the season. Thanks to all the volunteers that made it happen and lets try and get a few more of you out next week.

Ian

Blaze 817