THE good news for the OOD was that the large white cruiser had left the docks during the afternoon, but the bad news was that the black one was leaving during the evening.

This meant that courses going north of St Just were needed and group nine catered for this eventuality, but unhappily some crews had difficulty in finding them in the race instruction book.

Because the map inside does not go far enough the first three boats in A class had problems in distinguishing Carrick from Messack and so they sailed too far and had to backtrack after seeing others in the fleet turning the correct mark.

First to do this was Per Elisa which sailed an excellent race to win on handicap from Macavity and it was good to see Scorpion back in the running again, coming third.

The result of the points series for the IRC class was affected by the mistaken mark, Double Jeopardy had to beat Blue and be first or second in the race. Blue covered her to the finish to make sure of winning the second points series with Double Jeopardy second and Macavity third.

We all enjoyed a northerly beat in the force three and then a long spinnaker run down the Roads and this week everyone avoided the hole in the wind just south of Trefusis point.

The accelerating ebb tide made the reach by the docks and the final beat up to the fairway to the finish more and more difficult as the time passed so this situation worsened. The effect was to stretch out the time between the first comers and those later who had to struggle very hard just to make headway.

At the start of E class Jerry Windebank in Quicksilver tried to barge into a non-existent gap to windward of Hawk who responded by luffing and protesting which meant that Quicksilver had to do a 720 degree penalty turn unfortunately right in front of the committee boat and this allowed the rest of the class to escape into the distance.

In spite of or maybe because of this Jerry sailed very hard and came fifth out of nine boats. By contrast, in Moonshine all went well and no mistakes were made but they still came last.

In the J24 fleet Jitterbug was beating well until on one track as they tried to release the genoa sheet a horrible riding turn wrapped around the winch which meant that the boat hove to with the genoa locked to windward and so they stopped completely which gave an easy win to Walter Amos.

The late arrival of crew on Levity caused panic and so they dashed down the harbour arriving just in time to read the course and they made the best start of the season and sailed well to come fourth after the shambles before the gun. They think that this may well be their path to success.

Suddenly it was dark and the last boats finished with navigation lights on and the crews were glad to find the warmth of the clubhouse. There are only two pursuit races left to finish the Tuesday racing this season.

A fleet: 1, Per Elisa (R Tregear); 2, Macavity (J Murrell); 3, Scorpion (G Davies) B fleet: 1, Grace; 2, Victory (D Carne); 3, Winnie (A Williams) E fleet: 1, Amneris (P Hackett); 2, Hawk (C Bell); 3, Popincoota U fleet: 1, Red Gauntlet (W Hunt); 2, Halcyon (H Martin), 3, Mary Boon (J Cruise) V fleet: 1, Caprice; 2, Saucy Sally; 3, Clary J24 fleet: 1, Soma (W Amos); 2, Jitterbug M fleet: 1, Crackerjack; 2, Flying Circus G fleet: 1, Katy (S Grigg); 2, Miss Agnes (M Rangecroft); 3, Emily Alice (R Lawrence) Sailwave results G fleet: 1, Katy; 2, Polly; 3, Miss Agnes B fleet: 1, Mabel; 2, Victory; 3, Cousin Jinny E fleet: 1, Popincoota; 2, Amneris; 3, Hawk U fleet: 1, Mary Boon; 2, Red Gauntlet; 3, Halcyon V fleet: 1, Caprice; 2, Clary; 3, Mayfly J24 fleet: 1, Soma III; 2, Jitterbug; 3, Jiggy With It M fleet: 1, Alderney Race; 2, Flying Circus; 3, Crackerjack