Event  – Simon Ballantyne Memorial. PRO (principle race officer) Bryan Treleaven. RO Russell Wenham. Mark Foy Start

A lovely sunny day again with short sleeve shirts and no jerseys leading the way. The small fleet of 16 boats all made the starting line in a very light northerly breeze of zero knots to top-end 3 knots but mostly hovering around 1 knot of fluctuating direction.

The course was basically a windward leeward course, with a separation mark about 5 metres out at 90 degrees to the course at both the windward and leeward marks, with the start finish line in the center of the course.

A relatively short windward beat was favoured to allow two rounds of a port hand course with seven heats being completed all bar one twice round.

Forget all the above nonsense, lets talk racing. Laughter filled the day only just heading off the number of collisions and very limited number of penalties taken. Thankfully the RO’s were not onboard umpires as they would have been too busy to clock in the fleet finishing the heats. Now Tom’s word tsk tsk ( I think that’s what Tom said) fits nicely here being much more fitting at our 127 years old Yacht Club than what others might say.

In their unbiased judgement the RO’s did their best to set a course fair to all, but the higher handicappers struggled more than most which made the majority of the fleet very happy.

 After 7 heats Tony Taylor’s very consistent sailing won the day, with Chris Stricker and Colin Freeman the other two podium finishers. Well-done Tony. You told me that is the very first time you have won an event.

The rest of the fleet all had a little bit of lucky charm in a heat or two during the fluctuating day making it well worth being part of the fun at CMYC.

Days like today are a must for serious sailors.