GROUND HOG RACE, JANUARY 22nd 2006

The Ground hog Race is always a good event and I think that David Wood’s breakfast

has a great deal to do with it. Yesterday was no exception, we had something over 35

sailors sit down to breakfast and enjoy waffles, cream, strawberries, sausages, beacon,

eggs--if you cooked them yourself--and lots of coffee. Willing hands made light of the

clean-up and we were on the docks before 1000.

Ten boats were on the water with the reverse handicap start spread over about 30 mins.

DERYN MOR was the scratch boat, ploughing off into quite a chop with full sails and

single-handing. The wind was very gusty with big shifts in the gusts. Many of us had

reduced sail areas.

DERYN MOR did well to hold the lead round Batt Rock while WESTWIND and

ELECTRA were getting into a scrap for second around. AQUILA MIA was standing up to

her canvas very well as was SOUL DANCER. FINAL DASH, with a cast of thousands on

the rail, was making great speed under full sail. Bringing up the rear were ALACRITY,

STRAWBERRY EXPRESS and JEEKERS who were all demonstrating that they either

had the wrong sail area or were out of practice. FANDANGO demonstrated that they

needed some sail changing practice.

The run to Welbury should have seen spinnakers but the squalls were such that no one

had the courage. It was then a beam reach to the Sisters with some exhilarating sailing

at 8 knots and better. It also saw the ever competitive DERYN MOR overhauled by the

larger boats. ELECTRA, WESTWIND and FINAL DASH hoisted the spinnaker for the

run down the harbour and were rewarded with the first three places.

The results were:-

WESTWIND 100

ELECTRA 90

FINAL DASH 80

AQULIA MIA 70

DERYN MOR 60

SOUL DANCER 50

ALACRITY 40

STRAWBERRY EXP 30

FANDANGO 20

JEEKERS 10

Bob Jones,

ALACRITY