The second Mini Series of the season was a closely fought affair with seven boats enjoying three great races run by Race Officers Nick and Pam Readings.  Numbers were down a little for this second event as five of the fleet were away representing the BOD Class at the Bosham Classic Boat Revival, but the fact that the BODs can still muster 7 boats for an event like this even when a large group has gone away speaks to the huge progress and growth the fleet has made over the last couple of seasons.

Winds were light at between 5-7 mph with very shifty conditions for the three windward leeward races.  This made for some very close crossing tacks upwind, Dave Conlon, Finn Anderson and Sarah Bines in Wind Sprite took an early lead in race one and held on well, but Dan Willett, Pete Nicholson and Stuart Phillips in Bidi gybed early at the top mark on the last downwind leg and found a breeze that took them just past Avocet and Wind Sprite on the line.

Race 2 was again very close up wind with John Payne amongst others showing good speed, Malcolm Goodwin in Jean and Danny Fox in Egret chose the Mersea side while the others went up the Brightlingsea shore to close at the top mark. Jeremy Newman, Dave Bridle and Phil Rust in Avocet just made windward mark first and held on down the run followed by Windsprite and Jean.

In race 3 Avocet port tacked the fleet just! The entire fleet tacked up Brightlingsea shore against the tide with many position changes. Malcolm Goodwin and Jean found a shift and rounded first then successfully defended all the way to the finish, with Avocet second and Egret third.

In the overall standings Jeremy Newman sailing Avocet claimed victory by a narrow margin of three points, whilst second place could only be decided on count back with Malcolm Goodwin in Jean just pipping Dan Willett in Bidi for the second step of the podium. With such close racing good fun had by all and we’re looking forward to the next two weekends of the Osbourne Cup Series (race 1 on Sunday 14 September starting at 14.10 and race 2 on Sunday 21 September starting at 11.00 – both from the BSC line) when the entire fleet will be back together again and we can expect a fleet well into double figures.

Our thanks to Nick and Pam for stepping in as our Race Officers and for giving us great racing.

FINAL RESULTS