The whoop was heard across the South Lake as 15:45:00 arrived and High Five were at head of the fleet in the penultimate pursuit race of 2021.

The Sailing Sec had posted a Notice To Competitors to advise that this, and the final pursuit race of the season next week, were going to use start times based on a modified handicap. The adjustment is based on the race results software's analysis of the performance of different boat types across the summer series (excluding interclub regattas). It won't have escaped many competitors attention that the fleet has effectively been splitting into two with close racing within each of the two groups but a sizeable gap between the groups themselves. This could be seen in the HAL analysis and so the Sailing Secretary used this as a basis for an adjustment across the fleet.

The result is plain to see in the modified pursuit start times. The starting period has reduced from  22 minutes to 16. The change seemed to be working yesterday, with a mixed fleet at close quarters with twenty minutes racing to run. We'll see how we fare next week. Feedback is welcome of course.

Another point of note yesterday was the entry of Renegade skippered by Josh who is usually to be seen on Volante's foredeck. Westwinds was also out cometing in the Pursuits as a member of WMV. We hope to see more WMV boats racing next year.

Ju Ju mistook mark 17 for 14 and lost some time. Sadly same mistake was made by the sailing secretary,

Well done High Five!