Saturday arrived and many keen members turned out for an interesting afternoons sailing. The strong winds and gusty squally showers were going to be testing. I dropped Matthew, Evan and starling off and took the easy job of going to work. On my return some gear failure had struck the fleet. Linda Wilkinson’s mast had broken having not weathered the years as well as she has.(Happy 40th Birthday Linda). Peter and Micah had some screws popped out in their newly acquired Hartley, although all was not lost as they then enjoyed an afternoons sailing on Resivor gaining some experience for their Winter Series debut.

Matthew battled the winds and many capsizes while Shaun crewed for Hamish in the Phase 2 which he must of enjoyed given the descriptive vocabulary used on his return to shore. Arthur was the best of the laser sailors giving Evan and Jamie a good lesson.

The dinner was enjoyed by all with Matthew and Arthur (in pink) taking out the hat competition. The mature youth kindly did the dishes although some mumbling was heard about the need for a dishwasher. Micah, Matthew and Shaun exited stage left to do some night fishing.

Sunday dawned and it looked like lighter winds would be the order of the day. Everyone found a boat to sail and Murray Rumbles set the course. The wind kicked in and all boats were flying.

Lianne and Thomas but mainly Murray Wall will be eternally grateful for Kate’s loud starboard call at a buoy rounding as Lianne with Alex as crew came in on port and Thomas with Kate didn’t spot each other until the last moment. Some speedy helmsmanship and a T boning of the 420 was narrowly avoided.

Phil was the better of the laser sailors with new man Josh sailing exceptionally well. Linda and Micah worked hard in their borrowed starlings and Hamish and I had our first capsize, Hamish being the true gentleman and taking the wet exit while I scrambled for high ground.

Many thanks to Murray for the ODmanship and Owen for defrosting the beer fridge.