personal handicap | Welcome to The Datchet Flying Fifteens

The fleet was greeted this morning by…. FOG!! Blimey, it was only tuesday that I had to shovel my drive clear of snow, then Friday was 12 degrees – and now this!!

So we hung out for around two hours waiting for the breeze, and finally a super little 12mph worth set in with bright sunshine. It turned into a brilliant sail!!

Much talk during the postponement of Midnight Rog’s new personal handicap system for Flying Fifteens. Currently top of the seeding table, ranked I think by “most improved rating”, are Trevor and Mike!! See the Club Noticeboard for details and full results.

The racing turned out to be really really close. Race one got out of the gate at the pin end which John and Helen making a very nice go of it. The beat didn’t seem especially favoured one side or the other though there were plenty of shifts. This race turned out to be a squeakily close set of shaves between John/Helen, and Howard/Richard. Generally John and Helen stayed ahead, often by a couple of feet, then half way up the second beat they crossed behind Howard/Richard, then next tack they were ahead again. It continued in this sort of fashion until the last wing mark. There was a wee bit of traffic and a gust, and Howard with his favourite big white spinnaker blasted through. It was exceptionally close up that final reach, edging higher and higher, but in the end Howard and Richard got the gun.

For race two, the fleet again went for the pin end. This time, with nice upwind speed it was Howard and Richard at the top mark from John and Helen, with Trevor and Mike in third. The gap was more comfortable this time, and traffic issues aside, Howard and Richard stayed just out of reach all the way to the gun.

By the time we came ashore, it was a fine sunny afternoon. We are six races done on the series of 8 now and things are starting to take shape. Click here for the results to date.