A wild and wet night, with rain, and a forecast of strong gusts, seemed to dampen enthusiasm generally. However the rain had passed through when it was time to get ready for racing, and the gusts didn’t match expectations, so about 60 boats took to the water.
There were numerous capsizes before the start as the wind tended to be very gusty, and shifty to boot. There were some good excellent planing conditions to enjoy, but even the leaders were being caught out at times, and went for a swim, however brief!
The Nairn pursuit was held after lunch, with about 40 boats. The blustery conditions continued to take out even the best sailors at gybe marks, on the reaches and even beats!
The Mirrors were one of the first fleets to start and soon took the lead with Graham Vials and Andy Smith having some close battles. With about 10 minutes to go Graham had a good lead but was caught by a gust on a run, turtled his boat, then Andy took the lead.
Too many capsizes by the faster, pursuing, boats was their downfall and they lost too much ground to catch the leaders, so Andy and Katia Smith won overall.