Zoom Baby

The long spell of sunny days continued, bringing a light easterly breeze into the River.

Andy Dennis set course 19, the same as the previous week, with most of the marks in the River and near its mouth. The PY fleet is growing with three boats competing in the pursuit race, Beejolly, Valkyrie and Kudu. The three PY boats all had problems which led to their eventual retirement. Valkyrie made a mistake following the course, as did Kudu, and in addition Kudu also lost her jib halyard on the final leg.  The crew of Beejolly, already series winners, suffered the onset of a great thirst, which necessitated their retirement to find relief at the bar.

Zoom Baby, set off on the IRC race followed by Jacobi and then Orijin. Zoom Baby, helmed this week by John Jane, again zoomed away to an easy win. Orijin came close to catching Jacobi but Tony Statham on Jacobi made overtaking difficult, by passing dirty air down on to Orijin when the opportunity arose. The race course was completed by Zoom Baby before the 19.30 deadline and so the IRC yachts all started the course again in the same order leaving out the start line, Zoom Baby finishing at Central at about 19.40.

For the IRC pursuit series, with three of the four races completed, the place points favour Zoom Baby with a total of only 5 so far (3+1+1), while Orijin has 6 (1+2+3), and Jacobi 7 (2+3+2). It all rests on the final race on 28th April to decide the IRC series.