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MidSummer Medley Part 1 - The 9-5 Race

Published 21:42 on 14 Jul 2026

Day 1 of the MidSummer Medley weekend saw 6 club teams joined by a team from Harrogate Sea Cadets to compete in the 9-5 Team Relay race. The event was sailed in a mix of RS Visions, Quests and Fevas, joined by the club's Comet Trio, with the aim of completing as many laps as possible in a fixed time period. Although the original idea was to race between 9am and 5pm, the race was eventually scheduled for between 10am and 6pm, recognising that there is rarely much wind on the lake at 9am. There wasn't much wind at 10am either, so the Race Officer's first action was to put the AP up which gave everyone time for an extra cup of coffee, several last minute rigging adjustments and a few quick lessons on how to hoist a spinnaker.

Racing eventually got underway just after 11am as the forecast Easterly started to fill in. With the channel looking very patchy the course was set primarily in the South lake with a temporary mark set as close to the club line as practical and teams were warned that this could be moved further down the channel if the lap times became too short.

One of the aims of the event was to give novice sailors a chance to sail with more experienced racers, providing lots of opportunities for coaching and learning. Teams had the opportunity to use spinnakers and most gave it a go, although some of the younger ROTTERS pairings found themselves overpowered as the wind built.

With plenty of non-sailing time between crew shifts the ROTTERS kept themselves entertained with variations on capsize practice and experiments on how many kids will fit in a training Oppy, while the adults generally stuck with lots and lots of chatting and mugs of tea. At 4pm, with a lot of the younger sailors starting to flag, the race officers shortened the recommended crew change period and announced that the finish time would be brought forward to 5.30.

At this point the main problem for the Race Officers was that racing between the Visions was so tight that both teams finished on the same number of laps, though were fortunately far enough apart on the final lap that a reasonable decision could be made on final placings. After 6 ½ hrs sailing the 55 sailors had managed a combined 246 laps of the course meaning they had sailed over 110 miles in total!

The ROTTERS Reds took home the prize for most capsizes, with a few epic swims. The ROTTERS Whites finished as third 'junior' team and were allowed adult helms as the youngest sailor on the team was only 3! Harrogate Sea Cadets finished as second junior team, and ROTTERS Blues finished as top junior team. The Comet finished top adult boat while Richard and Henry should have taken home the adult capsize prize. Fortunately Gail has some fantastic photos of their exploits for the record.

Thanks to everyone who helped with rescue, race and galley duties throughout the day to ensure the event ran smoothly.