After two days of racing so far at the Gul K6 national championships hosted by the Royal Cornwall YC in Falmouth this week, there are some tired but happy sailors. Three races yesterday, culminating in a round-the-cans course which departed from the normal windward/leeward track, produced a close finish and some changing fortunes.

Moderate breezes with some shifts and holes have created incredibly close racing for the 23-boat fleet. The fancied teams have, on occassion, been seen rounding the first windward mark with very few boats behind them having been caught the wrong side of the first shift and in desperate need of a get out of jail card. Some have found the card, others have not.

Martin Wadhams, Amanda Davies and Claire Upton-Brown certainly gave themselves a fright in the opening race, but downwind pace got them back to a countable third, which they then followed with a string of bullets to lead comfortably at the half way stage. Close behind them, a consistency is beginning to emerge, but many boats have collected some top end results and with two discards if the full series is sailed just about anything could still happen.

Bill Masterman and Dan Mountifield finished with a second in the last race yesterday, pulling them up to second overall at this stage, just a point ahead of Rob and Will Evans who clinched third on the line.

But the biggest cheer of the day was reserved for Phillip Waterfall with his three big-blokes team. They were way over the competitive weight for the K6 even before loading the boat with a couple of cases of beer at the start of the day. A perfect pin end port tack start in the opening race saw them cross the fleet to a roar of appreciation from the other competitors.