Brave sailors rewarded at Oulton Broad

Once again it appeared that several helmsmen on Oulton Broad made their decision to sail or not to sail based on the weather forecast, but not for the first time conditions were somewhat better than predicted.

There was not much sun to be seen but the wind was around force 2-3 from the east for a change and there was some good sailing.

Richard Barrett made the best start sailing his RS40 in the first Fast Handicap race and led from start to finish with a one-minute lead over Richard Fryer in another RS400. But as generally happens the leaders on handicap came from further down the fleet and David Frary won in his Finn moving up from fourth on the water by a mere two seconds from Veronica Falat, who had finished eighth on the water in her Streaker with Ben Falat a bit further back in his Phantom. Barrett dropped back to fifth.

The Squibs again had a race that kept the spectators interested. Owen Delany got the best of the start and also led through the whole race but behind him there was some very close racing between Bryan Riley, Jim Tubby and David Gooch with the advantage changing on both the beats and runs but at the end they finished in that order.

The Slow Handicap sailed just one race in which Bethany Hood in her RS Tera beat a Topper.

The second Fast Handicap race had the same first three although in a different order. Ben Falat led on the water and held his position on handicap while Veronica Falat again took second with David Frary third.

There were only two Lasers out and Alan Cone beat Jonathan Jones.

The Squibs again had a close race but this time Bryan Riley was the winner from David Gooch with Owen Delany taking third.