It was an overcast morning when 4 ilca6 and 9 ilca7s started rigging with a light almost un-noticible wind. Bob Cudmore and John Holland did a great job setting and sorting the racing, and even included a prayer to the wind gods. It was average 11, with gusts even to 15knts during the racing ! The temperature was 8 degrees, both above and below the water line.

8 is an auspicous number in china, so after a good start (the committee boat end was pretty empty) imagine my surprise finding Roberta behind in my dirty air. Sadly it didn't last long as I followed Colston and we reached down to the windward mark with Roberta ahead. Not sure exactly what Neil Davis was up to but he decided passing the windward mark to starboard was not a good idea so jybed around and then apparently lost his mainsheet (unknotted ?).

Race 2 was intense for the Ilca6 sailors so I'm afraid my coverage of the Ilca7s is very sparse. I think I saw Neil improving from last to first between the 2 races, but you'll have to check the results. At the 3rd windward mark there was just 5 seconds between the first and last Ilca6s. Eventually Roberta extended her lead to 20 secs over me at the back, with John Lyons in between with second place. Well done Hugh for not capsizing this week !