Thames Sailing Club Tuesday Night Racing

What weather didn't we have? No wind, then rain, then sun, and then the wind returned all in the space of an hour - who'd be a river sailor! And the flow, no idea of speed but boats were going backwards...

One boat lined up in the handicap fleet, an Albacore followed by five Thames A Rater's (Adventurer, Bonito, Osprey, Strait Dealer and Vagabond)

Vagabond, helmed by Miles and crewed by two elderly gentlemen, Kevin and Nick, got off to the perfect start at the race box end of the line. They were somewhat taken aback to find that Osprey, helmed by Paul and crewed by the elegant Sue and inelegant Bart had snatched the lead from the pin end. Adventurer lay third, helmed by the redoubtable Ossie and crewed by two further Stewarts (There has to be a collective noun for Stewarts?).

Strait Dealer lay fourth helmed by Mark and crewed by Ed & Mark. Bonito had decided to explore the furthest reaches of Ravens Ait and was a little way behind as the gun went.

A minor misjudgement at the top mark saw Vagabond have the merest of touches of the buoy and dutifully re-rounded leaving Osprey to sail a near perfect race unmolested by other boats to win the race.

On numerous occasions Adventurer threatened to catch Vagabond before falling back time and again.

This left Bonito and Strait Dealer to sail their own races. These positions remained until Adventurer took pity on the lonely Albacore and decided that as the class was named after a fish it was fair game to hook it!

This reprehensible behaviour was noted and retribution was duly meted out as they performed a spot of gardening in the hope of currying favour with Albacore.

Neither Strait Dealer nor Bonito were able to take advantage of Adventurer's misfortune and sailed manfully on to finish.

No fish were hurt in making of this wonderful spectacle.

Overall Results: