SMELT 2017 at Carnac - Days 2 and 3
by Tom Jeffcoate 2 Jun 2017 08:07 BST
27-30 May 2017
Day 2 – sponsored by Allen brothers
Day 2 dawned with a light breeze which unfortunately refused to settle and 90 degree shifts meant the race officer had an impossible task. When it finally did settle the Merlin fleet decided they still didn't like the idea of racing much and had a general recall. The fleet quickly reset, but by now a large thunderstorm started moving ominously close and the race officer wisely decided it was now beer o'clock instead.
Charles Morrish kept the fleets entertained with a quiz and free wine and, as racing had been limited, prizes were instead awarded to some high achievers from the event so far including Paul Dean who managed to snap his mast on a péage booth, Tim Hartley who left his girlfriend at the services en route and had to go through 3 extra tolls in order to get back to her, Will Crocker for forgetting he had a bottle of wine in his waterproof bag with all his kit and it not surviving his careless bag toss when he got back to his hotel and, of course, Francois Podevyn who decided that 1am was too early to finish the evening and jumped on his bike to ride back into town only to get unbalanced by a sneaky roundabout and earn himself a night in A&E with a broken collar bone.
Day 3 – sponsored by North Sails
After the instability of the previous two days, Carnac delivered a steady force 3-4. All the classes managed 6 sprint races over the course of 3 hours with the short course keeping everyone compact and giving those enjoying a flying start the chance to quickly cash in and get ready for the next one. The results will tell you who did most of the winning and who chose to savour their sail around the bay a little longer but either way 140 happy but tired sailors retired to shore for food, drinks and to compare notes on the day's action.
www.yccarnac.com/dinghies-gbr-2017-results.html