Results: 2022 Summer Series Shakedown Pursuit

The first outing of the 2022 Summer Series saw five boats join the racing which is a good turn out considering so many boats haven't been able to launch yet. There are 26 boats in the fleet and the starting window for the entire fleet is 22 minutes. The 'mid-fleet' boat sails for 100mins and this year  Renegade and Local Hero straddle that sailing for 101 and 99 minutes respectively. The first starter is Sippery When Wet who sails 8 minutes before Renegade, and the last starters are Firefly and Volante who sail 14 minutes after her. So that means Firefly and Volante give Slippery When Wet a 22 minute head start and have 109 minutes to overtake her.

Yesterday's wind was flukey even by Windermere standards, with even the forecast showing a range of NE to SW and a speed between 1 and 9kts. With a forecast so variable it's bound to be right at some point, and that's exactly what we got. The course was a traingle in the North Lake 16P 12P 4P to try to make the most of the shifty conditions.

The last boat to sail yesterday was Jailbreak (1st picture - thanks Jan) who sailed for 90 minutes. Slippery When Wet took advantage of the "no spinnaker" allowance we introduced for pursuit races during the pandemic and so sailed for 113 minutes. In yesterday's wind conditions that was too much of a head start for anyone else to catch up and she was well ahead of the rest of the fleet at 15:45:00.

Ewen & Jake managed to overhaul the other three boats on Jailbreak's first outing, and the J80 looks like it will be a strong contender. As will Seventh Heaven which Graham and Paul managed to keep a boat length ahead of Deo confidimus. Paul joined Ian on Go With The Flow (2nd picture - thanks David) for her first race with the WCA.

So the finishing order was: -

1. Slippery When Wet
2. Jailbreak
3. Seventh Heaven
4. Deo confidimus
5. Go With The Flow

We look forward to seeing some of the other 12 new entrants over the coming weeks.