Another grey day on Maylandsea Bay

Another grey day greeted the fleet and for the first time this year it was not at the crack of dawn. A light breeze setting from the west wafted through the assembled competitors with Keith Fedi ‘Finn’ complaining that there was not a windward leg to be sailed and that it was to be spinnakered in every direction and all was lost! All a bit of a ruse on account that at 4 to 6 knots he was likely to be lead boat.

At the start Keith was seen to be digging a hole in the submerged mud that was once the spit at the north outward end of the starting line, with a look of horror in his eye and thrashing the tiller about to free himself. The small but keen fleet headed up the short windward leg to race mark 1.
It was Peter Playle ‘Laser’ who won the start and rounded the first mark first with Martin and Clive, also Lasers, in close contention. The fleet rounded the next mark and on a dead run to spit
was quickly joined by Keith and a short conversation on the merits of rocking to the pleasure of all.
It was to be Keith’s day who with great determination and weathering attacks from the Jacko ‘Merlin’ and the holes and fairies shifts in the wind sailed to take the two bullets of the day by a goodly margin.

Jacko teamed up with Alex Longshank a top notch Pico sailor and although Alex had not crewed a Merlin before put some very neat moves together and handled the spinnaker and Jacko with confidence, sitting out the wind ward legs well and flying the kite at every opportunity. However they could not make up sufficient time and with a couple of errors and a doggy second start finished with two 2nd.

Martin Tarling ‘Laser’, swapping places with fellow Laser sailor put on an impressive display of racing skills using a “get out of jail card” just at the right time to defeat Peter and Clive to finish with two 3rd.
The battle for lead Lark continued with Rorie and Charlotte again winning and narrowing the deficit to two points.
This bring us to the last race day, with three boats in the hunt with two races to come. Jacko ‘Merlin’ and Martin ‘Fireball’ only need to win one of the two races to stop Keith’s challenge to take the series, with Keith needing the two bullets to win on count back.






Next Race Day March the 15th starting at 13:25
Full results www.maylandseabay-sc.org.uk/
Thanks to Philip Spillane for sending the photos
Overall:
1st Merlin Rocket Alan Jackson & Lorna Laval 8 points
2nd Laser Martin Tarling 12 points
3rd Laser Peter Playle 20 points
4th Fireball Martin Scarth & Tony King 21 points
5th Laser Clive Tarling 21 points