What a weekend in the northern riviera. Situated a few miles from the famed Ikley Moor, this reservoir makes for the perfect sailing venue in mid summer. Of course it does not always experience the fine warm sunny weather we had this weekend, but it is an elevated reservoir on the moors with good wind and free of weed unless you ventured into the very corners which a few unfortunates did.
John Tushingham and his team put on a great weekend in wind that was swinging 30 degrees of so. When you have a more traditional wind direction from the west, you get to sail up and down the longest bank of the reservoir. They have built up a nice clubhouse with a kitchen that was run all weekend. Its a great place to visit with camp sites and hotels nearby.
On the Sunday morning which dawned hot and sunny, the wind was a pleasant 8 knots or so and we launched with A rigs which most stayed with us all day. Unlike yesterday I managed to sail clean with only one or two minor indiscretions. Racing was close and if you slipped up on the shifts, several places would be lost and of course you could equally gain. As the day went on the wind gusted up to about 15 knots until the last race when the threatened approaching weather front started to make itself felt and the wind built to gusts of 20 - 25 knots. It made it tough for those who stayed with A rigs including myself. More on that in another post.
Overall I stepped up my game and finished second to Chris Harris. The one overriding memory of the weekend was to survive the last race with the A rig and beat Darin Ballington, Chris Harris and Andrea Roberts. We all kept our A rigs on and it was a battle of survival downwind. I have not sailed in those conditions before but developed a technique which ensured survival and less time with the rudder waving in the air.
My thanks to John and the team for putting on a great weekend and look forward to returning in the near future.
Here are the results
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