Running racing in light winds on the biggest tides of the year meant the weekend of 14–15 July was never going to be easy. With water temperature in the Solent now almost 21 degrees Celsius and unbroken sunshine predicted, the met office forecast was for a late start to the sea breeze on Saturday and even lighter winds on Sunday. The PRO, Philip Gage, issued an amendment to add an extra race on the Saturday, in case racing had to be abandoned on Sunday – as indeed turned out to be the case. In the White group (mainly smaller yachts, many without engines), the chief race officer Jane Windsor kept them ashore until there was sufficient breeze to get them out to the race course. For the first race, a short course was laid in the SE 5-7 knots breeze. At noon, the starting sequence began, and the fleets got away. As the wind began to transition to a SW sea breeze, the race team shortened the Mixed Sportsboats. After waiting for the SSW zephyr to build into a sailable 6-8 knots breeze, a new course was laid straight across the now fast ebbing tide. With a long tidal offset spreader leg and several course moves, the competitors enjoyed two more quick races. For the fourth and final race of the day, the course was quickly moved again and lengthened as the wind finally built into a brisk SW sea breeze. J/70s and mixed Sportsboat classes were started together for three laps of the course. In the J/70 fleet, Fiona Hampshire in Elizabeth scored three bullets and a second to take the honours with Graham Clapp in Jeepster taking second and Patrick Liardet in Cosmic third. Full details of the results can be found here: https://yachtscoring.com/event_results_cumulative.cfm?eID=4691.

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