Aaron Chambers & Peter Nicks in their CL14, and Nikki Quinn with Sorin Popa in the colourful Laser 2 test the still increasing winds on port tack prior to race 2. Meanwhile, Dave and Ross (282) look to be in fine form except that their main luff shows stretch marks which will pull the draft too far forward!

Under the cliff and the Race Hut, the wind can be quite odd: note Oliver (176096) with a nice hiking-strength gust while Brad is dying right next to him. Rick meanwhile, has lots of guts and is gybing in hopes that he can squeeze into the more or less non- existent space between Steve (156896) and Kevin Biskaborn (61007) without fouling either one!!

... wily veteran, Mike Codd with Kirk Iredale starts to pinch them off. Less obvious here, is the fact that Uncle Al screwed up his start and Marc has decided that he might as well record the debacle in pixels. Not only does Al have both Mike and Dave sitting on his wind, but he can't even hope to do better by footing off because ...

Things look a bit grim aboard SHADES, but when all else fails under these circumstances, head for the moorings!!! So, Marc snapped this one last picture, and we tacked away. And we did indeed manage some damage control nearer the moorings and rounded inside at the point as planned but a good 100 yards behind Mike, Joe and John. It was in fact, good close racing down to #3 as the lead changed hands frequently and the leaders were all bunched as they rounded the windward mark.

But in the end, Al gained big time by gybing around #3 which had been placed even closer to the airport side shore than usual. Thus, he and Marc - after losing distance early - ended up in steadier breezes than the other guys who were mostly fighting each other into what intermittently became the lee of the right-side shore. By the time anyone noticed or chose to react, Al and Marc were off to a runaway win - just the way Rick Goldt used to sail that leg and kill us!!!