A Leap Year race - is that why Blackjack is sporting a large selection of fenders or an indication of her tactics? A cool day, light shifty winds but 10 boats braved the conditions to race in the Bay. The RO still had a sick note and enjoyed the warmth of the Bar with coffee and biscuits! The eagle eyed will note only 9 boats in the photo, the 10th was camera shy!
An excellent start by the largest and the smallest boat in the fleet, sandwiching a middle sized boat. The rest started sometime later. This resulted in a new collective noun for the TARS fleet - the TARdies. Ragamuffin was first to the windward mark, launched her spinnaker but things went pear shaped trying to get it down. I wonder how many fish she caught with it? Nevertheless, she was back in the lead by the end of the lap and then pulled away from the fleet.
The best racing, as always, was in the middle of the fleet with several boats fighting for position right until the line. Blackjack did not need her fenders for protection, she spent a lot of time going sideways! Congratulation to Supermac for taking race honours on corrected time, closely followed by Little Merlin and Billie-Anne.
The results of Thursdays race and the series so far are in the blog file below. More photos are on the TARS webpage.