Hi sailors,

Last Wednesday 17th March was the last of the Mid-Summer Splash and I felt sorry for the kids, keen enough to go out in just a zephyr of wind. And when that died completely the racing had to be abandoned for the second week in a row.

So Kyran Bosazza remained the overall winner of the series with 52 points. A shared second/third are bru Luke Bosazza and Jason Cooke, both on 45, and Justin Stoker is fourth on 44.

The keelers had it much better last Friday with a very pleasant sailing breeze. And we had a record nine boats on the water! It still is a very relaxed sort of racing where the bridge can have a good laugh instead of being overly zealous on the rules?. One of the skippers blithely started at the wrong side of the starting mark and another one hooked, and towed away the starting mark completely. But that must have been because it was the first time we actually used a starting mark instead of that obliging triple-decker cat that we used at previous keeler Fridays.

And the course was changed at the last minute after Mike had already gone to get the Club’s L26 under way. So he sailed the much longer earlier course. But he was so far ahead anyhow that we gave him first place in redress. Overall, after five races, the Microsail is leading on 20 points, followed by the Stadt 22 on 18, the Pirate on 17, and the Kelkiewijn and the L26 both on 16.

The next day, Saturday, it was blowing much better again, well into the 20s. That, and probably the long weekend, saw a dismal 3 boats each on the starting line for the seniors and the juniors. In the seniors Brett Gething won convincingly from Jock McConnachie, whilst Chris Tiffin didn’t make the finish. They sailed only one race and then called it a day.

The juniors sailed two races, both won by Jonathan Rees, with Georgou Divaris second and Jason Cooke third.

This coming Saturday, 27th March, we have an early start at 14h00, as it is the Michaelides Endurance race, and it wouldn’t be ‘endurance’ if it weren’t a long one

All the boats sail the same laps (srs a longer one than the jrs), and at the end, around 17h00 we divide the corrected time by the number of laps sailed to get an average lap time (ALT). Shortest ALT wins. Duncan Paton does the bridge and Johnny Vorster is on rescue.

Only one month to go before the season ends, so let’s get some boats on the water, and racing, whilst we still can.

Joop Weddepohl

(Racing Coordinator)

22nd March 2010