YES, after over a year in lockdown we actually had a Byte open meeting!

Weston hosted an “invitational Contender and Byte Open Meeting” which ran alongside their own “fast” and “slow” handicap fleets. Consequently each start took 20 minutes with Fast, Contender, Slow and then Byte starts at 5 minute intervals, fortunately no General Recalls! Efficient race management from the committee boat made it seem simple.  Three races each day, constrained by the tide to start at 12:30.  The weather was spectacularly good, with bright sunshine all day, temperatures reaching about 25degrees on Sunday.  The wind was light and variable for the first two races, 0-6mph but picked up to 5-10 for the last race. On Sunday the prevailing wind was augmented by a sea breeze to give a good 10-15mph across the course, all day. A trapezoidal course with two laps for the Bytes resulted in little mixing between the fleets (the contenders and “fast” fleets sailed a mixture of trapezoids and sausages).  The occasional catamaran zipping past and more often the larger fleet of Contenders mixing it up providing more spectacle than interference.

Byte turnout was small, with three “locals” Olwen Binks, Clare Mach and Maggie Futcher and two visitors, Rick and Kirsten. Port end starts were favoured on Saturday with Rick Whitehouse and Kirsten Glen competing for the best pin end start.  A mile long (felt more on Sunday!) beat to the windward mark saw little difference in boat speed between Rick and Kirsten, but Ricks faster off-wind speed eventually gave him first place. In the first race on Sunday Kirsten set up a port end flier but misjudged by a second as Rick bore down the line on starboard, with Kirsten crossing the line just before the gun, then immediately bearing down back across the line before the recall signal sounded, losing only 10-20 meters but this proved crucial, allowing Rick to control the beat. In the 5th race a distinct starboard bias to the line developed and gave Rick a dominating start. With a 6 hour journey home, Rick retired before the 6th race, joined by Maggie and Clare for early drinks.

Great venue, great weather, great course, great race management.