Queen Mary Report

Talk about starting with a bang! Queen Mary, which for our last few visits has produced an array of damp squibs, came up with one of the best day's racing for many years. Four races in Force Four plus, gusting up to the mid twenties and virtually every reach in the back straps all the way!

As we were sailing on the east side of the reservoir, the water was flatter than might have been expected due to the smoothing effect of the Queen Mary bund. The wind was able to accelerate across the whole width of the other side of the reservoir to produce excellent sailing conditions. Now and then however a massive gust took its toll, particularly at the start of Race Three, when most of the fleet was simply scythed down.

At the very front of the fleet there was the usual battle between Rob Kent and Lewis Barnes. But for the fact that the Race Officer tweaked the course after Race Three Lewis would have won the day, but in the heat of the moment after rounding the windward mark on Lap One with a substantial lead, he headed off to Mark no 3 instead of going along the top reach, taking Paul Leone with him. By the time these two had realised their error Rob was past them into the lead and never looked back. This meant that Lewis and Rob finished on equal points but as Rob won the last race he won overall.

Nick Kidd had a great day with two 3rds, a 4th and a 5th, to give him his first top three result for quite a long time, retirement must be doing him good!

Paul Leone enjoyed a lively day's sailing to take fourth place overall.

Only a little further down the fleet our Young Windsurfer of the Year, Julian Tait finished in 5th place overall, with a very creditable 3rd in Race Two, just beating Annette Kent by a single point. Florent Lambert, sailing his Div II, had a brilliant day to finish in 9th overall, a result which hides the fact that he was going very well in the early stages of the races, even managing to be first round the windward mark a couple of times, although he slipped back through the fleet as the races progressed.

Amongst the youngsters Rebecca and Emily Kent coped very competently with the strong winds and the huge gusts. Millie Searle, our only Techno sailor, braved the waves for races One and Two, but with the wind getting up well above 20 knots at lunchtime, having gone out for Race Three then she sensibly decided that enough was enough.

Our lone Formula sailor, Steve Sugden, gradually came to terms with the wind and had his best result in Race Four.

Results:

Raceboard: 1: Rob Kent (also 1st Master and 1st Light) 2: Lewis Barnes (also 1st Heavy) 3: Nick Kidd (also 1st Supervet) 4: Paul Leone - 1st Vet 5: Julian Tait - 1st Youth 6: Annette Kent - 1st Lady