Mike Hempstead reports from the BSC Summer Points racing on Sunday 13 July.  

The result on the water was a strange and for most a sad outcome for the BOD fleet in the difficult, no wind and strong ebb tide conditions,  All the fleet except Rough being over the line and only Gelasma going back to restart, being so far over.   At the time, in Gelasma, I was pretty fed up, however..things did improve….

In Gelasma we started the race almost 3 minutes behind the fleet, who were by then at the gate. However by not following the pack we sailed around the worst of the tide upwind and overtook Rough, Jumbo and Panic during the first lap.  We appeared to have good downwind speed and as the wind died under a huge black cloud, we closed up on the rest of the fleet in the creek and finished after one round in pouring rain with no wind at all.

For some reason the rest of the fleet rounded the turning mark and tried to do a second lap. All except White Spirit, who came over and suggested we might have actually won… so we quickly packed up the boat and went to the club where the OOD confirmed that we had won and Rough was second as the rest of the fleet were over the line. Wow!

Enjoying the moment on the beach at the club with my wonderful crew Anne and Eddie Howson we toasted the rest of the very wet fleet as they paraded back up the creek, being towed in by the RIB.   Funny sort of day….

Mike  BOD C18 Gelasma
looking forward to Pyefleet Week

FULL RESULTS