Pwllheli Autumn and Challenge Series - Day 2

Pwllheli Autumn and Challenge Series weekend 2 © Robin Evans

After ex-hurricane Lorenzo had passed through, Pwllheli was left with a steady South easterly of 15kts gusting 20kts and much drier conditions than anticipated.

The first race saw Peter Dunlop and Vicky Cox's J109 Mojito get off to a good start and managed to hold off newly arrived boats from Holyhead to get a convincing win but with all class 1 boats on similar handicaps it made for some close racing and Nigel Ingram's J109 Jetstream managed to get ahead of Mojito at the start of the second race.

Round the first mark and Mojito got ahead, only to lose it on a poor rounding further along the course, but some good kite work restored their lead. Meanwhile Stephen Williams's XP33 Darling xx were challenging Jetstream who were suffering from crew shortage leaving Stephen Williams's Darling xxx to take 2nd place in class 1.

Race three and it was Darling xx that got the best start while the rest of the fleet were caught out napping. By the first mark Mojito had managed to catch up and take the lead giving them three bullets for the day followed by Darling xx and Jetstream.

Day 2 and the wind had swung around to a north westerly providing very gusty conditions but nice flat seas. Race officer Robin Evans said that Mojito achieved two near perfect starts followed by the rest of the fleet on very similar handicaps. With winds increasing to just short of 30kts some impressive speeds were seen when the kites went up but with the increased wind came breakages and a succession of retirements leaving only Mojito and Paul Sutton's J109 Jaydreamer to finish the remainder of the racing.

Mojito lead the series but with more of the fleet set to return from other events in two weeks time, the series has plenty of points up for grabs, so it's far from over yet!

The series continues on 19th/20th October. For more information and full results, check out www.pwllhelisailingclub.co.uk