Busier than a one armed barbed wire fencer.

It was a light day out of the nor east, about 8 to 10 knots and a course two was on offer across the fleet.

There is no way about it; when Glenn Thomas gets the bit in his teeth and the crew respond; Problem Child is quick on a light day. The same might be said for Denise Bradley and her Lexcen inspired rocket ship Sidewalk Café. She got away at the start, did all the right things, including when and not to put up a spinnaker.

Sailing with George, three up on Mingara, we decided to carry a spinnaker as needed and watched in fascination when Cover Drive threw one up at every opportunity. Struth. The blokes an optimist as he can and does get away with it on the downhill runs. We’d had an ordinary start and the effort was to get past Peter Were, as we had no chance of catching Denise and her crew; they were gone. But we had Tim Harrison and Vision, one of the SS27’s on our heels for most of the race and only on the second lap, with a couple of decent runs of luck did we get away from them. Andrew Thorpe & Salimony, did well enough to keep in front of Pops and Force Five. On Mingara we managed to get the kite up and down, but as remarked by another skipper who watched us run a really shy kite from Robins to Dolphin East, sometimes it’s not worth the effort. But you do have to try!

As for Division three… well I never. Five H28’s out on the water and welcome to James Spittle and Napea of Carrick who must have thought it was Christmas to see all the H28’s around him. However it was Nick Melidonis who stole the thunder on the day on Hellas with the little boat screaming around the track 13 minutes ahead of the rest of the fleet. (If this was a dog track I’d be swabbing the boat and the crew.) But the best of the rest was Mariner, helmed by Phil Lammonby with a crew who knew their way around the boat and darn it… Ralph Newton has foresworn Eun na Mara for a while and is busily pushing the Skinner/Broadbent owned The First Jindarra around very well. Of particular merit, was the fourth place to Aloha both on handicap and over the line. Wildfire and Commotion were enjoying the day and I’m sure that the sunny afternoon was enough to keep them happy, but I do reserve my thoughts to Wynella who was just having a bad day. Speaking to one of the crew, no one was at fault, even the skipper. But if you could pick the wrong breeze or have a spot of bother on the fore deck, it was going to happen today.

Getting back to the Div one crowd, it was a case of another 10 minute gap between 1st and 2nd with Tapestry and Slippery When Wet not that far apart, but a slightly better handicap bumped David Atkinson up into second place. Everyone else appeared to have a great day and my only thoughts were that the soup table had run out of rolls, perhaps a few more could have been brought out?

I do feel sorry for our Sailing Captain, who passed up a perfect sailing day to watch his team get trounced by the Hawks. I could think of better things to do.

JAFFA  (Just Another Flamin’ Frostbite Adventure)

Sorry, not many photos today. I was busier than a one armed barbed wire fencer.