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WebA lovely, summer evening with a promising 10 knots or so of breeze and flat water. Five boats out, and we’re all off and round the infamous St John’s mark in fine style. Fly leading again, and stretching her lead to considerable proportions as the kite kicks in on a shy reach over to Callert. Shortly before we arrive at the mark we take a dramatic header followed by total calm, allowing Elrhuna and Sionnach (who still have wind) to close to an alarming hundred yards or so. We have plenty of time to watch as we wallow back over to the breeze (which has a visible edge cutting across the Loch from the fish farm to Invercoe), and see Sionnach sailing round Elrhuna on an amazing ribbon of wind no more than a couple of boat lengths wide. Once round the mark, however, they both still have to cross our calm patch to get back to the breeze, and our ‘slender’ lead proves to be a lot more comfortable than it looked as we get going again on a nifty close fetch over to the finish.
Results:
For those unfamiliar with our fleet, Elrhuna is an elegant 28 footer just four years short of her centenary. She won our inaugural Summer Points Series two years ago by the slenderest of margins when she tied on points and countback with my previous boat (a Jaguar 21). Sionnach is joining Fascinator and Fly at West Highland Week, which bodes well for the future of GBC racing as it will be the first time that three Club boats have taken part.
With two SPS races still to go, and either one or two discards allowed depending on whether both races are completed, Fly’s lead is now unassailable. With one discard currently applicable, our gross score is better than the next boat’s (Squirt’s) net total, but it would still be fun to be able to discard a first as well as the DNC we picked up the week I was off work in May!
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