GOOD WINDS FOR STENALINE ICEBREAKER 

Sunday 27th November was an interestingly windy day with winds reaching the top end of 20 knots from the north west. The course was course 2 and the start line was between the north east and rescue 4. Unfortunately our new ribs have not had their engines fitted so all those who want a look shall have to wait!
The Topper fleet was somewhat depleted in numbers with many sailors away training with RYANI squad. It was so windy that it took several minutes for the fleet to cross the line. Ben Martin took the lead off the start with Mark McDonough close behind. After a closely fought battle between the two friends, Mark reigned winner of the Icebreaker race.
The Large Dinghy had just as many racers as the last week. It was nice to see Sandra Halliwell and Suzanna Best out in their RS200. There was some display of crazy capsizing on the run from Roger Armson who capsized right in front of rescue 4. Wic McCready in his K2 came first and Rob Milligan 2^nd in his RS200. I hope we see more sailors and boats out on the sea, braving the cold! See you next week!

Wind Returns and Temperature drops......... but exhilaration increases.
On Sunday at 10.00am it didn't look likely that we would get to race. The wind was strong and large waves rolled into the bay. However the Icebreaker luck continued and the wind eased over lunch to ensure we all got afloat for week 9. Hard to believe there is only 3 Sundays left until Part One is complete and we are enjoying the Icebreaker Christmas Party !!! (Don't forget to put that date in your diary.... more details to follow next week)

Just before the start the wind increased again which made for champaign racing conditions. All fleets had good numbers and a number of the younger Laser sailors were out for a training session in the morning before they raced in the afternoon. Well most of them were young........ Hammy was there as well.

In the Laser fleet this training paid off as Oisin McClellend blasted away from the start line, revelling in the strong wind and using his, not inconsiderable, height and strength to great advantage. Bob Espey agreed to come out and be the rabbit for the greyhounds, acting as a pace setter for the racing fleet. It was obvious that he has not lost any of his skill in this boat as the greyhounds found it hard to keep up !!! Maybe he will enter Part 2 and put pressure on the top of the gold fleet. Colin Leonard was in hot pursuit after Oisin but had to work very hard to try and get past him. Overall leader Gareth Flannigan was sabotaged by Brian Lennox on the start line. Not sure what Gareth had done to upset him but Brian was determined to hold him back to give the rest of the fleet a start. I guess that's only fair really!!! Anyway the top of the "scoreboard" was slightly different this week. Colin Leonard did manage to get past and pushed Oisin into 2nd place. John Simms gets better every week and revelled in the breeze to finish 3rd with Gareth down in 4th. Chris Boyd is starting to nudge his way up the leader board and is in 5th place overall in the series after a 5th place on Sunday. The top still reads Flannigan, Leonard and Fletcher but there are only 5 points separating them.
The silver fleet saw Tim Robinson finish first (9th overall) with his best result of the year and clearly loving the windy conditions. Great to see him back  in his "supergran" hat !! John Kennedy was 2nd (11th) and Robin Moran 3rd  (12th ). Cavan Fynes still leads the silver fleet but will be disappointed with his 13th this week. Trevor Patterson was looking for a good result as he was very close to the top of the silver fleet. However it all turned to custard when he decided to lasso the North West mark with his main sheet and became part of the windward mark for a while. Never a good situation!!!
Des Magee is leading the Bronze fleet however Stephen Dobbs finished one place ahead of Des last Sunday and is now in 2nd place and is going to make Des work hard if he is to stay in the lead. Paddy Brow had a great result with a 14th on Sunday which pushes him to 3rd in the bronze fleet. If he had not been missing 5 weeks he could be right up with the leaders!!!

In the radials Adam Walmsley took the honours this week just ahead of Sam Purdon and Jessica Rutherford. These were the only boats which finished in this fleet so it means that Christina Cunningham still leads but only by 2 points from Chris Eames. Brian Bibby is in 4th with Sam Purden just one point behind in 4th. Jessica is in 5th and with not many points separating the top guys the next 3 weeks will be exciting!!

The 4.7's were won by Craig Campbell who leads overall. Lucy Burrows was 2nd with Michael Lewis in 3rd.

DATES

RNLI Christmas Shop in Bosun Bob’s

Sunday – Stenaline Icebreaker Race 2.30 start

ROARING FORTIES FLANNIGAN & MAXI