Good morning,
I thoroughly enjoyed the conditions, the racing and the cup of tea which race officers Mike Inns and Barry Bissell organised for us. One comment from Polly impressed me, he thanked the race committee for not cancelling even though the morning looked dubious. During the afternoon we did not have 1 drop of rain and a delightful breeze.
The Race Committee set a 2 lap course, which although not short by any means, seemed to favour the early markers on the Mark Foy starts. On the last 2 heats they increased the course by 1 lap which helped the later starters. It gives me humble pleasure to congratulate the podium placers, Peter Bradley (I have just looked in vain for 321’s MF number to match his other boat 363, mutter mutter) Allen Anderson and Nick Richardson with his newly acquired boat J-258. By the way Nick did not start on 80, but the same as his old boat 170 which is 0. Also, I must reluctantly praise Glen Church who was the best of the later starters, just missing out on the podium. Of course, I, no doubt, would have achieved even greater glory if J 146 had not fallen apart for some strange reason and had to miss a heat for repair time. Again there were no acrimonious instances so our good behaviour record is holding out for a long time now. As you know, I strive for the club to hold fast to obeying the Racing Rules of Sailing, but yesterday I witnessed an incident of inexcusable incompetence by a sailor whose name I shall not mention lest they feel picked on, but I think a necessary explanation should be given lest others of us commit the same breach. There are rules in the RRS which deal with Continuing Obstructions, our lake edge is a classic example of such, and there are options in the RRS to avoid being forced into this dangerous territory. However this unnamed sailor ignored all these options for safety and collided sharply with the bank and the boat fell apart. I actually witnessed this incident and was disturbed to note that certain unnamed sailors found it a source of great amusement. I would have expected a far more sympathetic approach just 1 week after the 125th regatta.