Nice and restful - NOT.

Saturday was supposed to be a nice moderate day with sun and warm westerlies. Two out of three ain't bad, I suppose.

We had the sun and the warm westerlies but calling them "moderate" might be a bit kind.

Force 7 gusts during the racing

With Tate as OOD and the Ryans still not back from Kinsale there was no RS on the line and with many of the Lasers off at the Leinsters in Wexford we might have expected a small fleet, but a good gaggle of Lasers and the OK Dinghy were out there to do battle. Keane, Harding, Nesbitt, Walsh, Dwyer, all in Lasers and Sheehy in the OK Dinghy..

With the wind rising the fleet was a bit lineshy on the first start on a 3 lap trapezoid course. Sheehy's OK got the best start and was fast up the first beat, leading the Lasers around the top mark. Keane caught up on the reach before the fleet headed onto the run.

Sheehy, with insufficient vang, put on an impressive display of bow dancing before finally stopping to inspect the bottom of the hull. Keane fell over laughing, allowing Harding into the lead while Dwyer took a sensible time-out.  Keane, despite the capsize and a number of chicken gybes on the rest of the first lap, sped up on lap 2 and managed to catch the more conservative Harding for a solid race win.

Race 2 was set on a shorter 2 lap windward-leeward course. Again Sheehy's OK Dinghy led off the line but Harding's Laser led to the top mark with Sheehy and Keane tight behind and pinned by a Mermaid. Keane took the lead at the bottom mark with Harding immediately behind and Sheehy about 30m back after sailing a rather conservative and heavily-vanged run.  Walsh was further back after a bad start, but hanging in there in serious wind.

Up the beat the leading Lasers went right and the OK went up the middle. At the mark Harding led again, having shown great upwind speed. Sheehy had recovered ground too and tacked into line immediately behind Harding and immediately below Keane's Laser. The three rounded in a tight bunch with two Mermaids.

Keane again sailed the run best, pipping Harding by at the line by 11 seconds and Sheehy by 19 seconds. Walsh came to the line shortly afterwards having sailed a solid race, with the rest retiring. A windy day.

The slightly sheltered harbor weather station showed force 7 gusts and they were there...no doubt.

Race 1 here.
Race 2 here.

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