Sunday was race 5 and 6 of the typhoon series with thoughts that there might be a typhoon hanging around it was a nice surprise to wake up to glorious sunshine and a nice breeze. The race officer set the course outside of the usual Port Shelter racing area where it was nice to have a change of scene and also have a race course with some swell on it. The starts were once again shared with the boats of divisions C and D for both of the races. The first start was quite close and once again saw Black Magic on the wrong side of the start line. Lucky for them there were plenty of other boats of at the line and the race officer called everyone back for a General Recall. With the 3 divisions now the last start to get away everyone was the right side of the line and were looking for clear air up the first beat. BM, Merlin and Longtze Belle headed up the left hand side of the course and Fly By Wire, Sidewinder and R2B2 going right. It was BM around the top mark first followed by Longtze Belle then R2B2 who made the most of the right hand side of the beat by going to the corner. There was a fair swell running down the racecourse which made for huge ground to be made up by any boats who could catch a ride. Tornado was able to square back her pole and run deep in to the bottom mark, making up time on the leaders. A couple of the boats gybed off early to find more pressure and clear their air on the left hand side of the run, however the course was fairly even with Merlin also made up heaps of ground on the downwind leg and at the bottom mark it was BM, R2B2, Longtze Belle, Merlin and Exocet making up the top 5. The rest of the fleet including Red Herring, Sidewinder and Catch 22 were involved in a 20 boat rounding of the bottom mark with Sidewinder coming off best after a Starboard approach to get the inside line. BM did a pretty good job of covering the fleet up the 2nd beat and the with some of the bigger boats coming around the course again to lap the fleet, there was ground to be lost sailing in dirty air. LB had a good beat up the middle of the course and she rounded the top mark 2nd with R2 just holding off Merlin. Going down the run R2 and Merlin soaked deep on the waves and were able to make up time on LB and at the finish R2 managed to get in front of LB who was closely followed by Merlin then Exocet, Tornado, Fly by Wire, Sidewinder, Red Herring, Catch 22 and Monsoon.

In the 2nd race there was a bit of a left hand shift before the start and R2 tried to capitalise on this with a cheeky attempt at a port tack flier, however, a miss timed run meant that they were too early for the gun and as a result had to take the stern of almost every boat on the start line. BM once again had a good start and when they tacked on to Port they were on the inside of a left hand shift and nicely lifting up on the fleet. Merlin also had a good beat as did the Longtze's and at the top mark it was BM followed by Merlin, Exocet, LB, R2B2, Fly By Wire. Down the run it paid to soak low and use the waves where possible to make up ground. At the bottom mark BM held on to their lead from Merlin, LB managed to get ahead of Exocet and R2 was fighting off FBW. With the wind still lifting on port tack it was the boats who could get up to the lay line first who made ground on the others. BM held on to their lead followed by Merlin, Tornado, R2 had made up some ground on the beat and was able to give LB some grief and FBW was also catching up. On the run some of the boats gybed again to see if there was any pressure on the left hand side of the course, Tornado was once again able to square her pole back and run deep to the finish. By now the SBR fleet was in the mix with the bigger boats from the other division. There was good tactical play from R2 managing to hold FBW out to the lay line and gybe late so FBW was pinned out by one of the larger cruising boats. Coming in to the finish it almost looked like R2 was going to see karma actions as they were being held out by another boat who was running on Starboard. R2 managed to ghost across the line and hold off FBW but LB who had managed to find clear air and miss all of the action when they gybed to the left hand side of the course pipped them by 2 seconds across the line. Exocet also managed to find a clear lane in to the finish and she was able to get ahead of FBW on the line. So at the finish it was BM with 2 bullets on this gorgeous day, followed by Merlin, Tornado, LB, R2, Exocet, FBW, Red Herring, Sidewinder, Catch 22 and Monsoon.

For full corrected times and the final results click here. Next week is the North Sails Saturday series and the following week is race 7 of the typhoon series.

With the sun poking through the clouds, Sunday morning looked like it could provide some decent weather for race 4 of the Typhoon series. The boats motored out to the start line with the breeze building to around 5 knots. The 8 boat SBR fleet started with 18 other boats from divisions C and D to give a total of 26 boats on the line, which caused some confusion for a couple of the boats who were caught OCS.

Going up the beat the fleet split across the 2 sides of the race course and as the boats went around Trio R2B2 had made the most of the advantage on the left hand side of the beat to lead Sidewinder followed up by Longtze Belle, Merlin, Black Magic, Exocet, Tornado and Monson. R2 managed to extend their lead until, on the way to Steep they found a hole and stopped, showing the rest of the fleet where not to go. With all of the boats sailing around the outside of R2's now-private parking lot BM had their stroke of luck (to counteract their misfortune of attempting to cheat> at the start line) and it was they who made it around Steep in first, followed by Merlin and Sidewinder. SW did a good job of keeping their momentum going around Steep and unlike Merlin they managed to ghost in to the new pressure and chase BM to Bay. With all of the other boats still trying to get around the mark the leaders were in pressure and sailing away from the fleet.

When the wind decided to fill in it really came...the kites were up for a close reach to Bay with about 6 knots of breeze it was shaping up to be a nice sail, then to put the cream on the cake as the boats went approached the bottom mark the wind clocked around and built to 20+ knots providing a high speed blast in to the turning buoy. BM and SW manage to get around the mark before the wind really hit (Peter's singing at the prize giving a couple of weeks ago must have pleased the wind gods to give him nothing but good luck!) and the 2 leaders headed up to Table. With the rest of the fleet charging in to the bottom mark with the new pressure there was going to be some carnage! Merlin was first in with a classic 'approach the mark mid broach' Longtze Belle managed to get around with no major mishaps and R2 managed to get the kite stuck half way up the mast resulting in a rip all the way across the middle panel. Seeing this, some of the other boats decided to take the sensible approach and take the kites down early and head in to the mark in a more relaxed fashion!

On the way up to table it was the boats who went right up the beat who made the most and at the finish it was BM managing to hold of SW who lead Merlin, LB, R2, Exocet, Tornado and Monsoon.

Next weekend is the HHYC North Sails Saturday Series so hopefully we will see more boats out for that. As always if you are looking for a ride or need crew give Taura a shout or look at the forums, which have been updated with people's details.