Huge congratulations to Alan Hicks, Craig and Jayne Bond on their victory in the first Thursday night race, for which they also win the John Barry Cup.  It was an extremely tricky race with an exceptionally low tide and very light airs.  The tide was so low that the boats were grounding at many of the marks and some of the fleet spent almost as much time aground as afloat.  The race was so long that it was almost dark by the time they finished so well done to everyone for sticking it out.

Four BODs were out and off the line they were so closely packed that it was almost impossible to tell them apart as they headed out of the creek.  Alan’s 20+ years experience in the BOD came to the fore and with his new boat C54 Storm Petrel showing impressive speed in the light airs he managed to sneak ahead of the opposition after the first mark.

Also out were Mike Hempstead’s C18 Gelasma which was helmed for the evening by John Saker with Mike crewing, Mark White’s C53 White Magic, which was also two up with Dick Stephens in the front of the boat, and Fi Brown’s C51 Grethe with guest helm Dave Charlton and crew Georgina White and Sally Hare.

On the finish line Storm Petrel had a nice lead over Mike Bees and Martin Worth in a Scorpion with Gelesma third and White Spirit fourth.  Grethe had a couple of unlucky groundings but still finished the race 8th overall and 4th BOD.

Several more boats are expecting to be out next week when we will have the benefit of a higher tide!