Chris has kindly compiled a race report for this weekend
There were 5 dragons and a surprisingly fresh SW gradient wind given the hot wind.
The course was 28P, 25P, 27P, 25P, 28P, MYA4P, 22P, 19P, 26S, 30P Club line finish.
A running start saw Whistle (Wendy, Jamie, Caroline and Lawrence) take the lead until Meers when they were unlucky to reach a hole which enabled OCD (Chris, Keith and Kevin) to roll them. Up to buoy 25 there was a constant switching of spinnaker as the wind changed around. There seemed to be two winds with the SW gradient and a SE thermal wind. In fact at the end of the race a big veer as the boats came towards 26 in Gillingham reach was enough to cause a dinghy to capsize to windward as the gradient returned.
Good hoists and drops enabled OCD to pull away and they were not threatened after MYA4. The beat from there to 22 was one sided although Tempest (David, Henry and Alisdair) did managed to overtake Whistle when they crossed the river early to sail out of tide on South side rather than stay on the North shore.
There was a good beat after Darnet to 26 and Whistle and Tempest exchanged places. But Whistle managed to finish second.
Molly (John, his son and James) and Taniwha (Bill, Jeff and Edwin) came in shortly afterwards.