BRASS MONKEY RACE REPORT

The Day started with cloud cover, sunny intervals and not an awful lot if any breeze during the latter part of the morning, fortunately a couple of hours prior to kick off a gentle wind was felt behind the ears. A fantastic amount of boats turned out for the start of the season affair, probably more than we have had in a fair few months, ranging from Lewi and Jono in the Hornet, to Ben in his spanking new blaze, Sam in the laser, Alan and his crew in the Snipe and Dean………….. in a contender?!?! A nice bit of breeze at the start with everyone looking competitive on the line, Lewis put the Hornet bang on the start mark as the gun went despite some serious interest from Mike in his laser attacking at full speed, with some good tacking work, Lewis managed to squeeze Alex out as well and made it to New Prom first closely followed by the rest of the fleet. A quick spini hoist and they were off shortly realising that it probably would have been a good idea to put the bung in! with some ballerina like footwork Jono quickly hurdled lewis and managed to screw it in before we submarined, with Alex on our heels and Ben not far behind it was a quick piece of work. The breeze had picked up reasonably nicely by this point which required some gentle hiking and a touch of trapezing at points, the hornet started to pull away with the advantageous spini legs and some tidal gain, Alex and Ben where having a ding dong battle behind us with Ben greatly improving to be right on Alex’s tail for the entire race and even being in front at points. The Lasers had the usual close battle with Mike, Sam and Keith all doing well, and then there was Dean, I don’t think he received the memo that a contender doesn’t work too well in light winds, last seen sailing round the course standing in the middle of the boat! With a quick shortened course by Simon and Vicky on the race boat applied the Hornet dropped the kite and put in a quick round to start the home leg, the race finished with the lead boat (hornet) coming in just under the hour with the 2 Blazes a few minutes later. Final positions: 1^st Lewis Woodland + Jono Bailey 2^nd Alex Williams 3^rd Ben Fullalove.