Pretty much spent the entire weekend on the water. Helped with the running of a powerboat course on Saturday, and then sailed the Ent for the first race of the season at Frampton.
First race started at noon, and to say that there was but the barest whisper of wind would be a gross exaggeration of the conditions.
Twentyish boats started on a line that, with what little wind stirred, was so hugely biased as to essentially be a downwind start. Needless to say, there was pandemonium at the windward mark, which we navigated with good grace only to get caught out at the hook mark and forced to take a 720 after hanging ourselves between the gunwales of a couple of Lasers.
The drifting conditions persisted throughout the rest of the hour long race but, despite everything we still managed a not disrespectful 7th place.
The wind picked up literally as we crossed the finish line, as always, but uncharacteristically held for the start of the second. The line had significant port bias on it which we used to our advantage at the start by ducking the other two Ents on port then tracking over the line to take them both on starboard. The one cleared ahead but the other was forced to tack under us, so followed us around the windward mark.
Take your victories where you can. It didn't last and, despite keeping in touch with them both for the remainder of the race and, briefly, pulling ahead of the other for a leg and a half, they both crossed the finish ahead of us.
Overall, we took 10th place, literally stealing it from a British Moth in the last couple of seconds which is always fun. Not as good a result as the first race which was surprising as drifting conditions are so much more demanding. Guess the rest of the fleet finds that to be the case as well.
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