Cruiser Saturday Series W5

Published 15:03 on 16 Jun 2025

Four boats participated in the W5 race on Saturday 14 June. The wind was a light northeasterly with the course set as Y, Z, C, M, D. The day was misty and earlier in the day there had been lots of rain. But it was dry as crews arrived at the club. There was a bit of a run on the river after the rain.

Andy Walker with 2 crew and his new air horn did the toots at the start. Exisle had a poor start, being to the south of number 6 buoy at the gun, so he had to do a bit of manoeuvring to get across the start line legally. Keith and Paul in Seeaway took an early lead, with Chris in Scherzo just behind them. As the fleet passed Z, Alastair in Pegasus II sailed past Chris and Walker in Exisle was closing the gap. Both Westerly Griffons were wary of the depth, Alastair having run aground in the same place in an earlier race. Despite the depth sounder on the MK 2 Griffon briefly showing 0, neither boat touched the bottom. Between Z and C Andy tried to pass Pegasus II to windward, but Johnson luffed firmly to prevent him getting past. The crews of the two smaller boats were delighted at this and Seeaway extended her lead.

Johnson rounded C just in front of Exisle and both boats stayed on starboard tack. The wind went round to the east on the beat which became one-sided. Halfway to M the rain started. Seeaway was well in front and rounded M in the lead. The two Griffons eventually tacked near Inchmickery. Pegasus II was just in front of Exisle at M and this lead was maintained to D, when the wind dropped a little and Walker began to close the gap. As the wind increased a little again, the gap between the boats narrowed. Up ahead Seeaway finished, and Andy moved a little to windward, but Alastair was expecting this and moved too. Walker got the message and just crept forward closing the gap further. Johnson held his nerve and crossed the line overlapped with Andy, but 5 seconds ahead of him. Chris was fourth across the line.