With the reopening of the road as advised by Vladimir there was hope of a greater turnout , we were delighted by the return of Vice Commodore Rama and Lady VG , who sailed with Peter as crew , Gavin and Yasid returned in Ratatosk AKA THE Squirrel Tom AKA the Mouse had the experienced James as crew with the Commodore on the helm
Tom had been launched freshly anti fouled the day before a psycologically buoyed by this the crew were expecting an easy race , in a good breeze of 12 knots we all started at the club line or more accurately we were pushed back from it by a strong tide , a decision was made to motor down where upon the squirrels newly serviced outboard cut out , the mouse with the bigger engine came back and towed the Squirrel at 2 knots against the tide, with wind filling in w start was organised , Lady VG and Jerry crossed tacks with Lady VG in front , Tom decided to try his luck In amongst the ships on the north shore and did seem to do better but went aground 3 times and then on the 4 th hit a spit tacked and bumped along the mud and clear , she was way out and it was really surprising, not so surprising was that Lady VG pulled ahead coming out of the river ,with always different and strange tides outside , Tom sailed on inshore whilst Lady VG tacked out to sea , Tom tacked out almost into the main channel crossing way ahead of Lady VG, then tacked back and coming within 100 yards of the buoy tacked and rounded , Ratatosk being some way back , great spinnaker work on both boats helped hold the positions to the finish , All agreed it was a one of the best days sailing , after that the beer tastes better too
Result ( Practice Race)
1 Tom
2 Lady VG
2 Ratatosk
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