Despite the very strong winds it was still a very very enjoyable weekend. It took 5hrs to drive there and 4.5 to drive back. The meal and drinks on Friday night were spot on. Walking back to Clubhouse early Saturday morning there was no wind and a clear sky. However, after a couple of hours sleep things had changed and just after launching according to the GPS I was traveling at 15-17knots towards the starting area (pepin lent me one of his three GPS units). As Wayne has previously stated whilst waiting to start the wind really picked up with some of the strongest gusts I have ever sailed in. At times whilst beating back to shore with my boards up 150mm or 6", the traveller down the track 225mm or 9", lots of downhaul etc. It felt as if the whole boat was getting blown backwards, trying to trap was difficult as I was getting blown backwards so often.
An afternoon in the sheltered boatpark filled in the time before more food and a little less drink.
Sunday morning and we were all pretty eager to get back out on the water. Unfortunately, John had family commitments so there was just Paul & Anne, Pepin, Wayne and myself. At the first mark of the first race at which none of us had good starts Paul had managed to pull up to third place by hitting the right hand corner, I had gone to the left and ended up mid fleet. I think Wayne and Pepin went up the middle? Downwind was a blast sailing both lower and faster than the shadows. The start finish line was deemed an obstruction on the downwind leg and due to it's size (length) and location on the course made for some quick tactical thinking as going to the left of start line you were always in danger of having to bear away in the gusts pushing you ever closer to being the wrong side of the committee boat. After three laps Paul had stretched out a comfortable lead on myself, Wayne wasn't too far behind either and Pepin brought up the rear. The second race started and the gusts were now a little more frequent and from a more westerly direction. Paul was again leading the F16's but was on the wrong side of the downwind leg (right) Pepin was also on that side of the course. I was trying to go more or less down the middle but on just having passed the pin end of the start/finish line a gust caught me, I didn't react quick enough and went for a dip. After sorting out the spi and righting the boat I noticed that both Paul and Pepin were also both capsized so the race was still on. Wayne lead for the next lap but snapped a centre board and I took the lead, Paul continued to race and finished second. However, on one of the runs he had to pass through the start/finish line on the downwind leg so the jury is still out as to whether he will be scored 2nd or 6th (DSQ) for the F16 TT results. Pepin retired with a broken cross bar but did lend Wayne his centre board. The Wind was still veering to the West so there was quite a long cold wait before the course was re-set and race 3 started. When it did I had my best start and was first boat around the windward mark for the first and second laps. Yet on the last run I went totally the wrong way and Paul, the Hurricanes and a good few Shadows overtook. Wayne retired with a broken snuffer bag and joined Pepin in the boatpark. Prior to race 4 the Course had to be altered again so due to the time and weather (increasing wind, decreasing temperature) both Paul, Anne and I decided to call it a day, sailed ashore and packed the boats up. After which we went for Coffee and decided we should meet up for more racing more often.