2015 - 2016 Inter-Galactic Series Race 4 Report

Boats; MoreFM (Steve and Tony), Merde (Deaf and Blinder aka Dave and Peter), Weapon (James and Dougal - and they really do look like a Magic 'Round-About pair), TheVirtual (Paul and Leo) and RaptR (Steve and Kasper). RaptR was going to race but didn't as they'd been out for quite a while. Well done Kasper on his first day out in an R.

First lap, breeze was strong and direction uncertain. Round to the north or east with soft spots, randomly switching to from where-ever @ 25 knots. Sea state: ugly

The late starting Merde and Weapon witnessed a rapidly disappearing red blur - TheVirtual had bagged the start (first time for all things, right?), and was the only foiler to find form on the day. The highly variable breeze combined with the really quite big and steep waves made it challenging just getting to the top mark. By Neptune's blessing, I think all boats actually managed to bear-away upright. On the downhill, TheVirtual recorded some hitherto record R-foil speeds of [REDACTED] knots and several near launch moments. In the afar tailing pack, Merde just couldn't keep up ride-height or speed and was wound-in in professional fashion by the Weapon - which was, incidentally, the only boat to not swim today. Steve and Tony were trialling a new kite chute, made from specialized materials that looked just like black polythene and a waste water pipe. Their new high-tech system wasn't quite up the hairy conditions, so they headed to the bar early.

And it all got worse up the second beat. The breeze was stronger, and both the sea state and the Weapon's crew got uglier. TheVirtuole, got knocked down going upwind, but had enough of a buffer to retain their lead. All I remember of the last down-wind leg was real-live surfing on breaking waves, nearly sis-kebabi-ing a Starling, a Zephyr, and the "rescue" boat, and going around the forestay.

TheVirtureHole seared in for an easy win, which knocks Sam off the top of the points table.