In flight 2 we welcomed back an almost full complement with 10 boats competing in close quarters in fine conditions.  The short-format courses served to re-acquaint many with their work, after 6 months ashore.

Willzy and the crew of Feng Shui (1348) made a predictably strong season debut, finishing first overall from Affinity (1059) and Alliance (1295), but overall the racing was extremely close (see tracking ​here)

NO RACING NEXT WEEK

There is no racing scheduled for next week (following the long weekend).

SPRING REGATTA

The Spring Regatta will now take place on Saturday 19th November at Bucklands Beach.  We will be sharing the race course with the Y88 fleet.

INVITATIONAL

The annual Invitational will take place on 29th November.  Send your suggestions for inclusion to Willzy (andrew.wills@northsails.com).

NEW CREW

A friend of Antonio's (Echelon  1083) is looking for a spot on an Etchells.  He is an experienced keelboat and dinghy sailor and has sailed in the Y88 fleet.  If you are looking for crew, please contact Anonio (antonio.concu.77@gmail.com)

RESULTS AND TRACKING

Results are here (Flights with tracking) and here (series)

Traditionally, the first flight of the season is abandoned for high winds, torrential rain and/or lightning and so the wonderfully benign conditions caught half the fleet napping and we were 7 for the opening sortie.

Fresh conditions on the dock promised to blow out a few cobwebs, but by the warning signal the breeze had dropped and continued to do so.

Hayden Whitburn's Upfront (814) adjusted best to the change of pace and stepped out to an enormous lead, which slowly diminished to a point where he must have been sweating bricks.  But he held his nerve - and the lead - to drift over in first.

There is no tracking for this race - all owners need to re-activate tracking by logging back into Yacht-Bot and sharing their device with the fleet account (alex@etchells.org.nz) - instructions have been emailed to individual owners.

Next week'd weather looks pretty good for racing and we hope to see more of you out there for Flight 2.  See you then.

​Results here (flight) and here (Series)