03/07/2013

Portavadie Pursuit Race and Muster

Out of the Blue, Camus Bosta and Exody all turned up expectantly to take part in the club's pursuit race to Colintraive. 

Off Kip it was blowing  27+knots and on Out of the Blue it became apparent that with the skipper recovering from a hernia operation and not being able to winch or steer, his crew of Catherine, Margaret and Lilias were a little light weight to control her in the gusts. So OOTB duly retired and headed back to Kip leaving Camus Bosta and Exody competing for honours. 

On Exody  with a  crew of 5,  including founder member Sheila Jennet, two 50 something lady day skippers and a 20 something dinghy sailor, the conditions were such that they also had trouble reefing down and a late start followed by two gear mishaps, (a bucket jammed in the genoa sheet turning block and the topping lift fouling on the new backstay insulators, then getting itself fully entwined in the wind generator) led them to put the engine on and retire while they sorted things out .  

Meanwhile on Camus Bosta Neil, Chris Garrigan and Don Gillies sailed on unaware of the carnage behind them and as the only boat to complete the race they were declared the winners.

Once inside the marina at Kip and after an empire biscuit or two the crew of OOTB rallied and as the wind had dropped, took heart and headed out to try again and under slightly better wind conditions,  managed to motor to Portavadie. 

Seamus  and Nick on Emma Louise had intended cruising up from Ardrossan but couldn't get out of the marina due to the high winds.  However they eventually sailed in later in the afternoon when the winds had moderated. 

Despite all these mishaps, four boats arrived safely at Portavadie, fully appreciating the warm showers and the drying room and 15 sat down to a truly enjoyable meal in the restaurant.

Sunday was by contrast light winds and wall to wall sunshine which was a sunbather's delight. We all motored home and Saturday's horrible weather was quickly forgotten.

No photographs regrettably.

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