Race Report:

Sunday morning came with a lighter breeze for the Forts Race but building very slowly throughout the morning. This race counted for double points and with no discards the sailors knew they had to get it right. The 2009 Forts race course involved the Forts first, then the Wind farm, then Spile followed by the swale and pier.

The race started with a tight kite leg causing some competitors problems and a few swims at the back of the fleet. The fleet soon dropped their kites to go for a two sail reach all the way to the Forts. The next leg was to the wind farm which was a wild kite leg all the way with a few swims near to the turning mark. The beat back was hard and made the competitors realise how far they had sailed downwind and how quickly they had travelled. The next leg was to the Spile which was the last leg, with only the Swale and Pier left the Australians had built up a nice lead quickly catching Will Sunnocks in the M20, they were then followed by Aaron Young and then Kyle Stoneham.

The Australian team had narrowed the gap to 8 minutes between them and the M20 before the last leg onto to sail even faster and cross the line in 1st place for the Tornado’s 4 minutes after the M20. A fantastic race on the water and from the beach!

A huge thank you must go to Whitstable Yacht Club for hosting the Nationals at late notice and putting on a great event.