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13 Mar 05
Warm Up Races 4, 5, 6
The second Installment of Dee's warm up series was to be directly linked as a warm up to the fast approaching Dart Open, with all races sailed on an Olympic Course.
With the cobwebs already brushed aside two weeks previously, excuses were few and far between with a nine strong turn out.
Race 4 began in a moderate breeze of a force 3-4 and a heavy port biased line, which prompted nearly the whole fleet to start on port, first off the line though was James Douglas & Sarah McGarrity followed closely by Paul & Michelle Roberts.
These two maintained their lead to the first mark just ahead of Pete Spedding & Jeni Donovan.
Will Thompson & Kim McMullen who had made a bad start worked hard to get up into 4 th after passing Ian & Jenny Blair, and was able to take full advantage of a substantial wind shift which significantly dented James & Sarah's increasing lead, another crew to lose out was Pete & Jeni.
However Will & Kim catapulted their way to the front with Paul & Michelle fighting to hold on to 2 nd from James & Sarah, also profiting from that particular wind shift was Ian & Jenny.
As it was Will & Kim never looked like relinquishing the lead and finished 1 st from Paul & Michelle who maintained 2 nd throughout the race, but disappointingly for James & Sarah they were overhauled before the finish and had to settle for 4 th behind Ian & Jenny in 3 rd .
By Race 5 wind had decreased a little but the start was more fiercely contended for with both Paul & Michelle and James & Sarah battling it out for the infamous port flyer.
All though it was again a heavily port biased line it may have been just to short for our heroes to cross the fleet, forcing Paul & Michelle to take evasive action from a starboard bound Pete & Jeni at the pin end.
Meanwhile James & Sarah took the other route dipping the remaining starboard boats which proved to be the right thing to do because at the windward mark it was James & Sarah who rounded in 2 nd behind Will & Kim who sailed magnificently all day.
It remained Will 1 st and James 2 nd with Pete & Jeni following in 3 rd leaving a battle for 4 th between Chris Aspinall & Andrew Mathewson and the Roberts's.
Although Chris & Andrew had fought their way passed downwind taking the advantage, Paul & Michelle appeared to take a more efficient route to the finish to regain the 4 th position.
Race 6 saw a heavily shorter course and with winds now increasing it proved to make the last race of the 2005 Warm Up series an eventful one.
As with the two previous races the start line was again heavily port biased, and with the mark positioned so it could almost be laid from the start line.
It proved too tempting as half the fleet started on port, leading the assault on port was Ian & Jenny Blair but they faced the Roberts's who came across on starboard to block them, only to fluff their tack only 10 or 15 feet from the start line trying to lay the windward mark.
The windward leg ended as hectically as it started and unlike the front three of James, Will and Pete who rounded cleanly, the second trio including the McLean's, Roberts's and Chris & Andrew became enthralled in a battle for 4 th .
A tight rounding saw Paul & Michelle come away first followed closely by Chris & Andrew leaving an unfortunate Ian & Debbie to do a 360 after touching the mark, although worth mentioning was their miraculous recovery to finish ahead of both Chris & Andrew and Ian & Jenny who had challenged and gained 4 th position from the Roberts's.
At the finish though it was James & Sarah who took line honors proving James can still win in the absence of crew/lucky mascot Miss McMullen who finished 2 nd with an inform Will ahead of Pete & Jeni and then Paul & Michelle who had faced stiff competition from Ian & Jenny.
Paul Roberts
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