Three races were sailed on Sunday 5 February 2017.

The first race involved a harbour start, starboard rounding of the seaward mark, port rounding of the landward mark and a finish back at the seaward mark – close racing saw Malgas and Wallbanger finish with a second of each other and Malgas ahead on corrected time.

The second race was characterised by the introduction of a Rabbit Start with the rabbit (Fling) sailing on a broad reach away from the pin for 2.5 minutes then returning to the pin to open a gate on the five minute gun. I recall hearing that this version was chosen to minimise the chances of Fling being T-Boned. Well, as they say in the classics; “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry!”

On the five minute Wallbanger was well placed to cross the (small and slowly opening) gate but wide eyes were observed on the Sadler 26 as louder and louder cries of “starboard” were directed towards the Cape 28 sailing gaily on Port tack astern of Fling. Collusion avoided and a great start for Wallbanger just squeezing through the gate.

Some messing around with the asymmetric spinnaker cost Wallbanger and, we suspect that Malgas throttled back a bit to allow Wallbanger to cross first – “Something to do with the first finisher having to pick up the top mark, Mike?”

With a steady breeze on the course the fleet decided to sail a third and final shortened race which saw some close racing on the first beat – Malgas and Wallbanger almost hugging whilst Fling and Skybird passed sugar and coffee across to each other almost neck and neck the entire way.

With a bit of thought we could try the 5O5 Dinghy rabbit start next – that method could help make the wide eyes less wide!

Scimitar Cup

Algoa Bay

Results are provisional as of 5 Feb 2017

Overall

R1-5Feb17

R2–5Feb17

R3-5Feb17

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