Today I was Principal Race Officer, and Peter Fisher was Race Officer (those are the official new titles for these positions).

I thought I better arrive early to start setting up and getting organised, but such is the spirit of this club when I got there almost everything was ready- thanks guys. That spirit was continued through the day as we set up lots of chairs under the willow tree and got the day under way.  The forecast was for ever increasing norwester, but there was no real pattern to it. The only direction the wind didn’t blow from was straight up.

The starts were Mass Start, 2 Fleets. This made for many random separations of the fleet, and many changes of position during and between races. We set a simple course of 2 marks to windward and two to leeward with a long run between. The results speak for themselves, and Polly’s skills were tested soundly throughout the day but he came through in the end. The gusty wind created a few tangles and mark penalties but all were exonerated on the spot which was good to see.

Being such a hot day, the Race Officers provided lots of bottled water and insisted they got taken between races, and nobody collapsed from heat exhaustion so we must have go that about right. I had a tense few minutes as I slipped with one and spilt some on the laptop mid race, which promptly froze and cut the mouse off. There is nothing in the manual about how to deal with this. There were no paper towels handy to mop it up. Racers were so focused on racing they didn’t see me remove my shirt and wipe everything down, which got us going again as things dried out. We had to start one race as a Mass Start All In while this was being dealt with, so Race 5 gave Fleet 2 a 50 second bonus in the results.

The day ended with chocolate biscuits (slightly melted) and cups of tea. And tasty apricots from Ralph’s garden. Delicious. He has an excess so if you want some let him know. Thanks again to everyone who helped with the day.

Al Ross