ISO Inlands / Gala - Queen Mary SC (23rd & 24th October 1999)
The weekend of October 23rd and 24th saw Queen Mary Sailing Club hosting the last round of the Gul sponsored Gala Series and the Inland Championships for ISO's.
First across the line in race 1 were Simon Phillips and Gareth Jones who are in their first season in an ISO. Their moment of glory was to be short lived as they were soon passed by Mike Speller and Rob Burridge, Mick Whitmore and Sarah Smith, Alistair Clarke and Pete Lindley and Steve Rich and Christian Smart.
The second race started in light winds. First to the weather mark were Rich and Smart closely followed by Whitmore and Smith. In the patchy conditions these two soon opened up a respectable lead. The next downwind leg was characterised by strong gusts that quickly closed the fleet back up and allowed Team RBRC and Team RWO to emerge from the pack and back into contention. By the end of the race the order was RBRC, RWO, Whitmore and Smith and Rich and Smart.
Race three on Sunday morning found everybody in apprehensive mood as the long awaited forecasted gale appeared to have arrived. There was a reluctance to take to the water as the wind was whistling through the dinghy park. However when the race eventually started it was in near drifter conditions. Unfortunately after a lap a near perfect 90 deg shift gave the whole fleet good reaching practice but rather boring racing. Even so the usual boats emerged at the front with Clarke and Lindley on Team RWO managing to fight off Speller and Burridge sailing Team RBRC, to claim a well deserved victory. Dave Bradly and Chris Shipman sailing Crosskeys, performed well to claim 3rd disrupting the usual order.
Race 4 was the race where Gary Smith and Lynn Whitmore were to work the shifts well to sail into a good lead. Unfortunately for them it was also the race where, with a lap to go, the wind went from 10 knots to gusting gale force in a few minutes. When the dust finally settled Speller and Burridge had again showed fine form to only just claim their third victory from RWO to win the weekend and the Gul Gala Series.
