A tricky offshore wind, the course setters nightmare, was the order of the day for this round of the XFS. Eventually we settled on an almost get there in one tack for the upwind leg, followed by an almost sails full open run, back to a port rounding at the mid point and two short beating legs with a run inbetween.
Early on the course seemed to suit the wide beamed ICE's who appeared to have it their own way, John Burgoine (45) putting his newly acquired ICE into a commanding position over the morning races. Mike Ewart (36, ICE) brought his yacht home second more often than not and these two were having a great battle at the front. The Birmingham gremlins still hadn't left Peter Shepherd and his Fat Boy Slim, with both sail & sail servo issues in the early races, a complete battery failure just after changing in race 7 it wasn't untill the afternoon session that he really started to recover and join the other two battling for victories. (indeed some of the cake was still in his transmitter!)
Geoff Raygada (41, Fat Boy Slim), came in fourth with a noteable win in race 11. Robin Webb (04) with his patriotic livery Slim also had a single victory, indeed of the nine skippers present all but three took race wins, and everyone was in the mix most of the time. Peter Jackson (30, F Plan) was trying out an experimental chine hull based upon the Fat Boy, initially christened the Easy Slim it proved to be anything but, hence it's renaming.
It was close at the back with David Wilkinson (46, Iambus 2.15), Tom Steel (158, Fat Boy Slim) and Trevor Thomas (58, Slim) all try their hardest to stay off the bottom, unfortunately for Trevor his last three results meant that he took that dubious honour.
The XFS returns for a second vist to Bournville for ACT8 on the 5th September 2015, and you can get your entry in for the Met & Southern District Championship and the Cadenhead Trophy at the new venue of Clapham MYC on Sunday 27th September 2015.