The overnight near gale force winds had eased to a light westerly for the New Year’s Day race at Wilsonian Sailing Club, aptly named the Chilly Willies. Entry fees being donated to the RNLI. Eleven competitors, all from the host club, had recovered sufficiently from the previous night’s revelries to be on the line for the mid-day start. After several false starts before they were off the RS 400 of Chris Ashby/Colin Treadwell and the Fireball of Tony Hunt/Ian Parris gradually pulled ahead of the chasing pack and they slogged it out over the two laps with Ashby/Treadwell just getting the line honours.

Grahame Smith (Laser Vortex) and Brian Lamb/Brian Warwick (Wayfarer) led the rest of the fleet, however, Lamb/Warwick got the better of the wind shifts and handled well the beat against the ebb tidal stream in the dying breeze to comfortably win on corrected time, relegating Hunt/Parris to runners-up spot. While Peter Belcher (Laser), finishing five minutes later, secured the third prize.

Overall Results

1st Wayfarer Brian Lamb/Brian Warwick

2nd Fireball Tony Hunt/Ian Parris

3rd Laser Peter Belcher

4th RS 400 Chris Ashby/Colin Treadwell

5th Laser Radial Andrew Smith

6th Miracle Doug/Peter Horner