Mirror Open at Ripon Sailing Club

Mirrors at Ripon © Tony Dallimore / T3Imaging

A small but select group of Mirror dinghy sailors contested Ripon Sailing Club's Mirror open meeting on 24 October, with five visitors joining two local boats. For some time there was little evidence of the forecast 9 to 12 mph wind and even less sign of the predicted 25mph gusts.

Drizzle in Race 1 didn't help with things either, as wet spinnakers were reluctant to fill on the first light wind run back from the windward mark. All was not lost though. The breeze arrived and practically reversed in direction so the run became another beat! Things settled down then to give a good day's sailing with some planing legs and even a capsize or two. The clear leader in the first, rather mixed, race was Rachel Grayson from Beaver SC ahead of local sailor Judith Hart, with Sandy and Douglas Simpson from Ullswater SC in 3rd.

Race 2 was started after lunch in much better conditions and though the wind continued to swing back and forth the fleet was well behaved off the start line, despite the development of a late port bias that encouraged them to all go for the pin end. Rachel Grayson took a big lead until a capsize halted her progress in the rising wind. She struggled to right the boat but managed to get going again just in time to retain her lead, only to lose it on the run when she (and most others) failed to register that there was a big wind shadow in the lee of the trees. He father Matt Grayson was wise to this and led the fleet home after passing to leeward of several boats, with Alex Simpson from Ullswater SC 3rd.

In the final race Rachel Grayson decided to stay ashore and dry out, possibly a wise move as the wind increased to give some hard beats and lively off wind legs. Matt Grayson and Alex Simpson had a close race throughout, with the lead swapping between the two of them several times. It was Alex Simpson who led to the finish, though only by a couple of boats lengths, but Matt Grayson turned back 20 yards from the line and relinquished his 2nd place to Royd and Tilda Brayshay (Ripon SC), with Sandy and Douglas Simpson 3rd. You might have thought that he did it to allow his daughter Rachel to win overall. Not so, though she did win as a consequence. It turned out he'd rounded a mark the wrong way, realised what he'd done but had not bothered to go back. Ah well!

Overall Results: