Race 1
The winds were a little puffy and shifty, which made for a preferred port tack off the start line. In a surprising move, John Butler started on starboard at the pin end, tacked immediately onto port and made it to the first mark in one go, being lifted all the time. He rounded ahead of Mervyn Berry, and led at the 2nd mark too. It was then that he failed the Aldridge eyesight test (50mm numbers on a cylindrical buoy from 200 metres) and headed for the wrong mark.
Mervyn initially followed, but then realised John s error, and let Simon Hopkins and John Claridge through. John C briefly managed to get ahead of Simon mid-race at a windless windward mark, but then dropped his tiller extension allowing Simon to regain the lead. Mervyn recovered enough to put John C under pressure, but Simon was away and gone at the end.