Mirror Nationals days 1 and 2

by Steve Wilkinson on 24 Aug 2011 The Crewsaver Mirror Nationals welcomed a total of 78 entries for the first day of racing. Now, races 1 and 2 have been completed with all boats currently returned or returning to shore. Conditions have been very light, with a 7 -10 knot breeze, bright sunshine and an ebb tide to contend with.

Race conditions were light throughout the two races run on day one of the 2011 Mirror Nationals, with the tide magnifying the effect of some of the windshifts. Hill Head sailor Nigel Thomas crewed by Milly Moss mastered the conditions most effectively to occupy the lead position overnight, with a one point advantage over Ed and Beth Grey. Two points further back in third position are Tom Cosier and Niamh O'Neill the first of the home based Restronguet boats.

With similar conditions to today forecast for day two it is likely to be another trying day out on the water for the 78 boat fleet.

Day two: Conditions remained light today, and resulted in the first black flag of the event following several attempts to get the first race off to a clean start. Eight boats were black flagged, and in the current difficult sailing conditions this could well prove costly to those concerned in the final standings. On his 16th birthday Rory Mackenzie got off to a fine start with a win in race 3 and a fourth in race 4, which together with the first of the discards kicking in left him in second place overall just one point behind leader Nigel Thomas.

Older brother Calum Mackenzie / Rob Thomas continued to put in consistent results in races 3 and 4, which moved him up to third place overall eight points behind the leader. Nigel Thomas / Milly Moss continue to grind out the results with a second and first in today’s races, just giving them the edge over Rory Mackenzie / Harvey Martin.

Up and down the fleet the results continue to show large variations from one race to the next for the majority of competitors, as they try to combat the wind shifts, wind strength and tide.

After Nigel Thomas / Milly Moss and Katie Davies / Gemma Keers won the aggregate buddy prize for the day one races, today it was the turn of Rory Mackenzie/ Harvey Martin and local Penzance crew Becca Stephens/Lisa Prichard to claim the aggregate buddy prize.

Day three: After a two hour wait for the wind to arrive with crews on the water, racing was abandoned for the day.

Results as of 16:29 on August 23, 2011

Sailed: 4, Discards: 1, To count: 3, Entries: 78, Scoring system: Appendix A

UK Mirror Sailing website