This years's Poole Race attracted a splendid entry of 10 boats, but the poor weather forecast, especially for Sunday, put many of them off and in the event just 4 of the 10 turned up for the start: Almada, Echo, Manana and Syrenka.
The boats took off for Poole in very light winds with the boats' nav. equipment showing 3 hours or more to Arish Mell – but by 10 o'clock the wind started to fill in nicely and by the time the fleet approached Lulworth they were enjoying perfect sailing conditions with 16 kts of good clean breeze and glorious sunshine. This was to be a race under spinnaker and most of the boats carried their chutes to well East of Anvil Point before dropping them, turning to port and hoping for a fast reach down to the finish. Echo took a different strategy preferring to jibe right on the tip of Anvil Point and carry the chute the whole way to the finish. The resulting white knuckle ride proved a good strategy from a race point of view but did also result in a massive broach just minutes before the finish, and directly in the path of Mickey Carter's Manana (who had by now completed the course and was making a hasty return to Weymouth before the bad weather arrived). Never mind, a little course change by Mickey and a rapid recovery of a rather soggy spinnaker from Echo and all was well and both boats carried on with only seconds lost.
While Manana beat her way home against the tide and a freshening breeze, the other boats moored up in the comfort of the most welcoming Poole Yacht club and enjoyed a number of cool beers in the afternoon sun before settling down for an extremely pleasant meal in the yacht club's new restaurant area – the perfect way to end a perfect day!
The Poole Race forms part of the Castle Cove LD series which also includes the Cherbourg Race, The Alderney Race, the Allen Welling race, the Cove Cup and the Basso Cup.
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