Crickey, it was a nice afternoon at The Bus Stop.
What a beautiful warm afternoon we had for sailing today. A NE breeze that was varying up and down tested the twelve skippers during their racing.
Nigel 168 set a course that I've seen before that had some skippers scratching both ends. It was THE HOLE that got them, just like last time. It takes a look ahead and a bit of forward planning to get through those doldrums.
The breeze was quite strong in bursts within each race so somewhere around the circuit you were going to be moving fast. Again, forward planning was the name of the game. The photos show a taste of the wind pressure.
Rob 501 had some drama that luckily unfolded close to shore. 501 and 230 had a prang and as a result 501 sank to the bottom very quickly. Luckily, the water depth left about 150mm of sail sticking above the surface.
Nigel deployed Rescue 1 which went to the rescue and completed the salvage admirably.
Again we will only know the cause after the Black Box data has been analysed. See the pictures of the action.
The wonderful day finished with two RTW's. Pete 179 and Clive 998 were the winners.
Enjoy the photos.
Pete 179
