Today I had the honour of being Assistant Race Officer to Derek K, his first stint as Principal Race Officer. On my arrival at Rua, Derek, Peter F, and Bruce L, were already into action with buoys in the dingy on the ramp, so I thought I’d better get stuck in. Hence, life jacket on, jump in dinghy, lay buoys at Derek’s designated positions. All good, but hell those buoy ropes are long, and they float. All good, that’ll slow down the 1m boats with their deeper keels when rounding a couple of the marks.

Right let’s get on with putting rest of marks out, but hell this boat leaks, bloody wet in here. Oh s__t what’s that hole in the transom, bungs!!! When I left home I expected the conditions to be a blustery Northerly, but Derek had designed a course in quieter water at the northern end of the lake, with a beat to windward, wing mark, top mark, twice round, finish into wind. Conditions proved quite tricky at the top end of the track and also tripped up a few at the finish line. 14 boats competed with a spread of placing in all races. 7 heats were completed with the last being a one lapper.

Proceedings were held up for a while before the third heat as we waited for the dragon boaters to launch. They were going out on the water in remembrance to one of their team whom had passed away. The day was rounded off with a cuppa, yummy biscuits supplied by Derek, and a chat. Congratulations to all who sailed and in particular these managing to get the podium seats. Thanks to all who helped clean up etc, particularly Peter F. Cheers ARO