May weekend - puffy choppy speed

A sunny windy Saturday was in store for the sailors on the May weekend. Much windier than forecast with 30+knot puffs sweeping the bay instead of the 10-15 forecast.

Graham Elmes' Laser headed for the Island Trial course while Sheehy and van der Wolf's OK Dinghies lined up for the DBSC racing. While the wind made it a great day for sailing, it was a bit rough so Elmes wisely chose to do the "Junior" Island Trial course instead of the full route and van der Wolf stayed inside the harbor walls while only Sheehy's OK Dinghy headed upwind to the DBSC course in Seapoint.

26-32 knot puffs. And maybe more in Seapoint!

Elmes took quite a chunk off Paul Keane's previous best time on the Island Trial and showed that a Laser shouldn't be underestimated on this kind of challenge. He was able to reach out and back and put in the high sustained speeds that could scare a Moth around the full course. Certainly not the same peak speeds, but no crashes either! See the full report on the Island Trial event site.

Meantime, Sheehy's OK was learning how to go upwind through brutal Seapoint chop. He only really got it right in race 2, but was holding Mermaids upwind in the blow and staying upright on the runs despite the puffs. Like Elmes, he was hitting 11 knots plus on any kind of beam reach.  There's a full report over at the OK Dinghy site.

Well earned pints for all at the George afterwards as the sun shone and the BBQ produced excellent burgers!