Once again Hollowell reservoir served up some interesting racing, the wind was unpredictable and came from over the clubhouse, around the club house over the dam and pretty much where ever it darn well pleased. We opted for a reaching start (so that we could see the line a port rounding to a wide downwind gate, with a port rounding at the windward end of the course, twice around and then back to the reach mark finishing over the same line we had used for the start.
Eight skippers took on the challenge most of whom are Hollowell SC members, Peter Jackson started off well along with Mike Ewart then John Burgoine came good, Peter Shepherd managed a couple of flashes of brilliance amongst a lot of mediocraty, Colin Davies had but just one moment in the sun, Geoff Raygada was middle to lower order solid. Grenville Thornhill had just started to string together some front of fleet results when a servo winch failure put him out, (incidently the Tornado winch he was using is equiped with an overload cut out when he got home it worked fine!) Keith Bell was taken out by PJ in race 11 the resulting breakage was unable to be fixed there and then puting him out also. It was tough going but we all got through largely unscathed, the Hollowell kitchens soup was most welcome and restored our spirits, with PJ and I swapping roles we had plenty of time to eat our soup and contemplate the error of our ways. In the end it was that close between Mike & John nobody could call it, PJ had a very creditable 3rd place and had we completed the 16 races who knows whether he could have closed the deficit on the other two. It also looked as if Grenville would challenge for the lead, and you have to feel sorry for him with the boat going well he was forced to retire,
Looking forward to the next event 25th March 2017 - Six Metre Trophy Series R1 - Two Islands RYC