A DECENT ENE breeze with many shifts and gusts as well as an ebb tide made for an interesting and testing afternoon’s sailing for the Yawls, reports Mark Waterhouse.

This was Merlin Rocket weather and the two of them disappeared off into the distance only to been seen again as we passed on different legs of the course.

Meanwhile, in the slower boats, the Yawls were having some fun. The course, 3,5,1,3,1,3,2 was just the right length and provided plenty of opportunities. Thank you to the RO, Phil King and his team.

It was the two oldest boats Y15, Mike Knowles/Aaron Dornom, and Mark Waterhouse/Phil Magee in Y17 that went around the first windward mark in that order closely followed by Andy and Liz Savill in Y187.

Meanwhile, Y150, Simon Dawes/Woody had breakages on board slowing them down somewhat.

The leg to buoy five was typically shifty and gusty. The ebb tide added another dimension making it tricky to decide where to go to get the best of tide and wind.

Y187 ducked low and overtook the two blue flee boats leaving them to fight amongst themselves. At one point all three were nicely lined up across the bag.

Then we hit the convergence zone between Halwell and Tosnos point where the wind from Frogmore meets the wind from the Bag and it turns off, turns round, goes up and goes down allowing the whole fleet to bunch up again.

Hello Merlins; they were waiting patiently for the yawls in zero wind. Whatever decision you made on positioning it was probably wrong.

AJ and Tris Squire in their Albacore were way ahead, went low and never seemed to get the wind until everyone else had got theirs. The Burns were high and in more tide but nudged their Merlin into a puff and headed off again closely followed by the Meadowcrofts.

Dan and Gail Bridger in Y98, Graham Cranford-Smith and his daughter Tamar in Y172 as well as Y15 and Y187 picked up the puffs to help them through the zone chasing Y187 while Y17 waited.

The run to Blackstone was uneventful but the beat back up was decision time. Which side to go against the tide, town or beach? There was a split.

Y187 lead up the beach side. Y98 seemed to have a problem at Blackstone but then headed for the town side. Y15, Y172 and, chasing hard, Y17 having rounded close on the heels of Y172, all followed Y187 on the beach side.

A tacking duel ensued between Y17 and Y172, Y17 passed. Y15 had a problem in a tack or two allowing Y17 to pass them too.

Meanwhile, Y98 was looking good on the town side and the beach fleet crossed to cover led by Y187 with Y17 again chasing hard. These two pulled out a good lead over the remaining yawls who battled it out with each other up the town side.

Y161, Andrew Stirling/Stephen Galvin, were never out of the fray and joined the ensuing battle with Y98 eventually prevailing. Y17 couldn’t pass Y187, despite them going aground off snapes, but was close enough at the finish to win on handicap with the Merlin of John and Zoe Meadowcroft splitting them for 2nd overall.

Photography by Lucy Burn.