Six Snipes turned out for racing on the evening of Thursday, 19 May. It had been very windy all day but by the time racing started the wind had dropped so much that the first race, held over the south westerly course No.6, took more than forty minutes to complete. As well as coping with the lack of wind the boats had to manoeuvre through the ever-increasing number of creel markers in the harbour, with hidden lines that form a trap to catch centre-boards and rudders and stopping boats dead in the water. As every skipper will tell you, it is always the crewʼs fault for not spotting them in time.

 

 

The first race was won by No Fear, followed by Wild Goose and Scooby. Humdinger was so determined not to give Go Faster Blue water at mark No.5 that both sailed way off the direct route and had to double-back to round the mark. The wind picked up a little and moved round to the south so Course 5 was used for the second race which was a Crews race. The race was won convincingly by Thorfinn Johnston in Go Faster Blue, followed by Steph Wauchope in Wild Goose and Glen Foubister in No Fear.At the start of the third race the fleet was a bit over-enthusiastic and most of the boats were well over the start line when the hooter sounded. An individual recall might have been feasible but as it would have applied to most of the boats the preferred option was to sound a general recall. The restart was clean and the race was without any notable incident. Wild Goose came first, Humdinger second and Go Faster Blue third.

 

The full results were:

 

Race 1: 1 No Fear (Neil and Glen Foubister), 2 Wild Goose (Mark Taylor and Steph Wauchope), 3 Scooby (Donny and Finley Hall), 4 Double Dutch (Kenny Holland and Dave Bews), 5 Go Faster Blue (Pete Tipler and Thorfinn Johnston), 6 Humdinger (Barry Jones and Sheena Taylor).

 

Race 2 Crew: 1 Thorfinn Johnston (Go Faster Blue), 2 Steph Wauchope (Wild Goose), 3 Glen Foubister (No Fear), 4 Dave Bews (Double Dutch), 5 Sheena Taylor (Humdinger), 6 Finley Hall (Scooby).

 

Race 3: 1 Wild Goose, 2 Humdinger, 3 Go Faster Blue, 4 No Fear, 5 Double Dutch, 6 Scooby. The safety boat was manned by Malcolm Tipler and the starter was Isobel Tipler.

 

Isobel Tipler