Light and variable wins saw some challenging racing as the spring series continued. Nick Marlow was on top form winning the Silver and Fast fleets, whilst Mike Pritchard won the Gold Fleet and Brian Dennis the Bronze Fleet. In the Gold Fleet, only 65 seconds covered the top six boats on corrected time. After four races of the gold, silver and bronze series the pecking order is getting clearer. The Gold Fleet is currently led by Mike Pritchard and Bob Ceurstemont and looks like Jill Reid will be going straight back to the Silver fleet with Malcolm Davidson also a likely candidate. The remaining six in the fleet are separated by only four points so will be a long battle to survive in this fleet.
In the Silver Fleet the top three places for promotion seem to be between Nick Marlow, Paul Jago, Josie Adams and Nick Turnbull-Ross. Jeff Marshall looks like gaining mid-table security with the other five in danger of relegation to the Bronze Fleet. Duncan Adams is struggling to make an impression in the Bronze Fleet with pace setters being Roger Chilvers and Brendan McGrath and these two look favourite for promotion with Nick Whiles and the Mick Adams/Paul Mellows combo battling for third.
Overall the GSB series seems to have increased participation and after four races the gold fleet has an average entry of eight, silver six and bronze an average of eight with this series overall having higher Sunday entries than any over the last four years.
The Fast Fleet is led by Bob Ceurstemont, Kevin Milton and Keith Breton with the Slow Fleet led overall by Paul Jago, Ray Kemish and Mike Pritchard. Talk on the water was whether Paul Jago would be swapping a Streaker for a Supernova.
Next Sunday sees three races for the Bank Holiday Cup starting at 14:00hrs and this Wednesday sees the 17:00hrs race series starting – variously called the Old Codger, the School Skiver, the it Must be Time to Leave Work series.