I hate to sound like a broken record but another glorious spring day on the Brook today with a gentle  Swiss breeze or is that bries, coming from the north to west before the sea breeze filled in around 12:30 ish. Something a bit different today with Coordinator Stuart Harris introducing a Teams Event. Five teams of four, all picked by Stuart, to sail relay style around the usual 1 lap course. Teams could sail in any order and the next starter had to wait till their team mate had crossed the finish line. Any ties after the completion of the 3 races would be decided by sail off between the team leaders.

The teams were:
Team 1    John Smith, John Banks, Peter Sylvester and David Jones.
Team 2   Craig McCauley, John Deegan, Bruce Rose and Chris Wood.
Team 3   Wayne Turner, Kim Potter, Peter Darcy and Rod Jackman.
Team 4   Denis Lees, Rob Cooney, David Murfet and yours truly ( we all had a V something so called ourselves Team Vickers).
Team 5   Steven Brayshaw, Don McLeod, Alan Furmage and Ray Joyce.

After 3 hectic and quite long races, it came down to a tie would you believe, between Team 3 and Team 5. It was up to the two "senior" skippers of each team, Peter Darcy and Ray Joyce to battle it out in a head to head. They must have felt the pressure as the rest of the skippers watched their every tactic. Ray Joyce showed his skills to win comfortably fro the Silver Fox and win the event for Team 5 out right, each member taking home their own Plonk Trophy.

As the sea breeze was now established a few long distance races were sailed to take advantage of the conditions and as a warm up to next Sunday's Long Distance Series with a BBQ lunch. Racing starts at 11:00 AM and I encourage the die hard Wednesday sailors to participate.

Til then, wet sails.

Stuart Dawes.
(No results file today.)

Today was the turn of the Marbleheads at the later summer start time of 1:30 PM. While a west nor wester was blowing gently down the dam as we rigged up, there were signs of a sea breeze as the overcast conditions were breaking up and the sun was starting to heat things up. PRO for the day was David Murfet, thankyou David, but only a half dozen skippers turned up. A rig was the only option in the light and very shifty conditions at first, and when the sea breeze came in around Race 5, it still wasn't strong enough to warrant the smaller rig. It was however, strong enough to mount RaceCam and some great vision was recorded including were I thought (hoped) I was crossing Ray on port but alas my judgment was out. Ten races were sailed in reasonable pressure averaging around 8 knots but with the usual puffs and holes. Water level in the dam has lowered exposing the weed beds along the bank, it also makes launching tricky, having to avoid a few clumps growing straight off the launching ramp, and a few stray floaters caught a few of us and stopped us in our wake during the course of the afternoon's racing.

John Hall opened his account with a win in Race 1 with Ray Joyce and Peter Sylvester hot on his tail. I had a pit stop after the windward marks to remove some profoundly cursed weed and came DFL. Ray took his only win for the day in Race 2 followed by yours truly and the Red Dragon Andrew Wardrop in third. John scored another bullet in Race 3 followed closely by myself and Ray. I grabbed my first win in Race 4 with John Hall always persistent in second place, as too Ray Joyce in third place. After the first drop, John Hall held a 1 point lead on 4 points from myself, and Ray Joyce a point behind in third place. Race 5 was another good one for me, taking the win from Andrew Wardrop and Ray Joyce. Andrew Wardrop won the battle in Race 6 from Ray Joyce and the F3. Race 7 was when I put on RaceCam and with the extra load still managed to finish second behind John Hall again and Peter Sylvester with another podium finish. Race 8 was neck and neck between Andrew, Ray and myself until I tried to cross Ray on port and didn't make it, all caught on video. Andrew was the victor in that race with Peter Sylvester sailing well into second spot and John Hall rounding out the minor places. Another pit stop to take off the camera that was barely holding. After eight races, John Hall was leading from myself on count back on 11 points with Ray Joyce in third place on 15 points. John Hall threw down the gauntlet in Race 9 taking the win on the last beat from myself and Ray third. Going into the last race John Hall was on 12 points, myself on 13 points and Ray on 18 points. The last race was as keenly contested with myself taking line honours from Ray Joyce and John Hall in third place, giving me the win for the day with 14 points from John Hall on 15 points and Ray Joyce third overall with 20 points. I cursed the weed in Race 1 but in the end it gave me the win.

Next Sunday is the return of the Long Distance Series starting at 11:00 AM with a BBQ lunch.

Till then, wet sails.

Stuart Dawes

Cool but sunny conditions and a moderate to fresh southerly airflow resulted in patchy and challenging moderate winds on the Brook for the mid-week handicap series. PRO for the day was Chris Wood who got the thirteen skippers racing at the usual time. Every one was on A Rig, I opted for B Rig. Scratch markers were John Deegan and Wayne Turner off zero, David Murfet, Kim Potter and Rob Cooney off 20 seconds, Andrew Wardrop and Bruce Rose off 40 seconds and the rest off 1 minute.

Andrew Wardrop took the honours in the first race with Ray Joyce and yours truly filling the minor positions. Race 2 winner was Rob Cooney with John Deegan taking second spot and Kim Potter rounding out the top three. Race 3 was won by Bruce Rose with David Murfet second and Ray Joyce in third. Race 4 was Long Distance with running start and the usual 50% handicap addition. Backmarker David Jones sailed the fastest course to take the win from fellow backmarker Rod Jackman and John Deegan coming to grips with the IOM in third place. Andrew Wardrop grabbed another bullet in Race 5 and David Murfet made the podium again as did yours truly. With one race to sail, Andrew Wardrop had a 4 point lead over Ray Joyce and myself on 16 points, and John Deegan one point adrift in fourth place overall. Rob Cooney grabbed a second win for the day in the last race, and a podium finish for Wayne Turner and Ray Joyce.

Winner of the Plonk Trophy was Andrew Wardrop on 18 points with Ray Joyce bridging the gap to one point in second place and yours truly 2 points back in third place. From the photos I take it that Ray won the Coordinator's Cup.

Next Sunday in Round 1 of the Marblehead Summer Series and racing is from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM. Lets hope for a good sea breeze and a chance to get some more video from on-board the F3.

Till the, wet sails.

Stuart Dawes

Huey was in a good mood today after yesterday's gales, the sun was shining and a light to moderate breeze coming mainly down the dam but with the mandatory "Brook Factor" to keep us on ours toes, and a forecast for an afternoon sea breeze. PRO Les Hanson briefed 12 skippers and got racing underway at the scheduled time. By lunch time there had been 7 closely contested races with 5 different winners. The usual doldrums ensued during the lunch break with the first hints of a sea breeze but the nor westerly had one more phase in it and another 2 races were sailed before the sea breeze finally kicked in. Five races were sailed in the sea breeze and the usual funkiness at the top end made conditions challenging at times. In the afternoon session there were five separate winners and racing was close all day. Out of 14 races there 7 different winners. Michael Hickman and David Jones had 3 wins a piece, Rod Jackman, Ray Joyce and myself had 2 wins each, and Peter Sylvester and Peter Darcy a win each as well.  In the end it was a comfortable win for Mr Consistency, Michael Hickman on 25 points, a mere 13 points clear of Rod Jackman on 38 points in second place, 8 points clear of third placegetter yours truly, by a point from  the fast finishing David Jones.

Next Sunday is Marblehead Summer Series Round 1, with racing starting later at 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM.

Till then, wet sails.

Stuart Dawes