Rugby & Daventry

So, the first "proper"open of the year appeared a week or so ago, and for us Midlanders it was going to be an interesting event, there was breeze forecast which is always a plus (but not much) at Rugby S.C, however the bloody fisherman as always were there, in force, en' masse!

So about 11 yachters turned up for the first event of most peoples calendars and certainly mine and James, the noticeable absenteeism was Youngy who was off "Race training" somewhere - a possible formiddable opponent later in the season ?? Also, Barry, where were you... thought you loved sailing at Rugby??

So Race 1 kicked-off without much incident me and James had an OK start (would have been cool if the wind hadn't shifted, but hey its Rugby), we fought our way into the lead, just, round the windward mark and held of the hotly pursuing pack over the next few laps in typical challenging, light, shifty breezes. Martin & Laurence unfortunately managed to "slide" around us on one of the tricky downwind "under-bank" legs and we weren't happy; We pursuid for the next couple of laps and managed to squeeze pass them at the same mark by a matter of feet, only to fall fowl of the shiftying breezes again and they got back into the lead seconds after we regained it and held to the finish.. bummer

Lunch was typically good as always and poor old youngy missed it...

Race two, after considering an port tack flyer and bailing out we ended up doing a standard starboard end start, with the breeze shifting back 2 favour port; not he best start and in the increasingly shifty breezes we were foul of getting stuck in the pack and struggling to get out; Martin sruck out into the lead and although hotly chased, was never caught on his home patch of water, we managed to pull upto 3rd, but it was a struggle....

After another break and a bit of taking stock we all hit the water for the last race; the breeze had held up which was nice and unusual for Rugby SC.... again port tack flyer loooked like the favourite, and this time bugger the lot of you we were gonna at least try it...

Yachts & Yachting quote:

"...a text book port end start by Clay who rounded the first mark in the lead..."

Yeh yeh yeh baby! we rocked that race, and ended the day on a high... not wuite as high as a kite, but high enough to see the blue sky beyond the clouds of the other races...

1st Martin & Laurence Davies (Rugby & Daventry S.C.) 2pts
2nd Ant Clay & James Holmes (SoulSailor R.A.) 3pts
3rd Mike Cossey & Christine Barron (Tamworth S.C.) 5pts