The forecast said less than 3 knots of wind at 11.00 so the SAMM race day timings were changed to a later arrival at CTD and a later start on Sunday May 14th. Ten competitors in five boats entered.
The first race start was set for 12.15 when the wind was supposed to be NW 5-6 knots, but was it, oh no, it was W 3.5 knots at the gun so a slow start with Cuatro and Dos across together after 1min 50 secs and these two had a close battle throughout the race. The others started at staggered intervals until Vision crossed at 6 mins 10 secs. Maneuvering was difficult in the conditions and Uno grounded on the reef. Her crew had to clamber out and stand on the reef to push her off. She finally started last.
6 mins and 15 secs into the race the wind built to 5.5 knots but then dropped off again then went N so all boats took over 21 minutes for the first lap. So it continued throughout the race and boats only managed 3 or 4 laps before the finish.
The second race was started at 13.45 in a NWN 6 knot wind with Cuatro and Vision crossing together, quickly followed by Tres with Cuatro and Dos bringing up the rear 2 mins 15 secs later. Again the wind was fickle, constantly changing between W and N and varying between 6 and 10 knots, which kept all crews on the toes if they didn’t want to get caught out.
As the boats were lapping at between 6 and 10 minutes, the about to finish signal was sounded after 53 minutes only for the wind to drop to nothing soon after then come back up again gradually from 1 to 5 knots from the E. This really caught all boats out and the final lap was much slower for everybody.
A real test of everybody’s skill in reacting to the wind changes which some managed better than others.
Results: First race Uno 618 secs, Cuatro 712 secs, Dos 779 secs. Second race Cuatro 391 secs, Tres 419 secs, Vision 457 secs.
