Warm sunshine and the shelter of trees on the windward shore belied the Force 5, gusting 6, that awaited competitors at the Catapult TT at Rutland Water on 23 August. Pushing things too hard could easily lead to disaster, as Chris Phillips amply demonstrated by capsizing a couple of times!

A confusing course marker led early leader Stuart Ede and half the fleet to follow the wrong course allowing Cliff Antill to claim first and Alastair Forrest second place in Race 1 with Dave Jennings in third.

Cliff showed it was no fluke by forging to the front of Race 2, when early leaders Neal Graneau, Alastair and Gareth Ede struggled with tacking at the windward mark in the strengthening wind.

Alastair got away to pursue Cliff, with Stuart steadily closing the gap in third. As Alastair rounded the leeward mark with just yards to the finish, Stuart tried to snatch second by throwing in a hurried tack, only to fluff it and be pipped for third place by Gareth.

In Race 3 after lunch, now on a triangle course, Stuart’s port tack flyer gave him the lead off the start but Gareth and Neal overtook him on one of the screaming reaches to finish in this order.

A port tack start paid off again for Stuart in Race 4, but Gareth chased him down over the next few laps to take the lead. Cliff moved up into second place on the penultimate lap, which would have assured his claim on the event.

However, Stuart climbed back past him on the last beat and began closing on Gareth to be on his coat tails at the last mark. At this point Gareth would have won the event on tie break, but ‘dad’ unfortunately spoilt that by snatching first on the line, as Gareth sailed into wind shadow.

This gave Cliff the event with Gareth and Stuart taking second and third respectively.
Neal came a creditable 5th behind Alastair after a four year absence from the fleet, having been at or near the front at some point in most of the races and coming second in Race 3.

Overall results

1st         Cliff Antill                  5 points

2nd       Gareth Ede     FileySC         6

3rd        Stuart Ede      Filey SC         8

4th          Alastair Forrest                  9

5th             Neal Graneau                  11