Round 1 of the Garde series was held at SFS yesterday.

The forecast was for either 13-18 or 15-20 (depending on who you spoke to) from the NE. Those that had sailed at Lane Cove on Saturday were talking it up after being hit by a really decent NE'er the day before ("whitecaps in the river" was one memorable quote from Wolfie). There was also a "this is about to kick in" Haze across the harbour and Jono reckoned he got an ice-cream headache from the cold water when he dove into the surf in the morning.

So we all talked ourselves into going 3rd rig. On the way out to the start in 10k from the E the odd gust tempted us into thinking we might be able pull two strings so we were hopeful it wasn't too far away. Unfortunately it never came in.

The 12 skiffs got two race in, crouching all the way around the course.

The clear winner of the Round were Spiesy & Damo on Andrew Short Marine with two bullets followed by Gemmell Sails in 2nd & O in 3rd.

On handicap "At Call powered by Bainbridge International" are leading, Andrew Short Marine on Second and Hey Charger in third.

If we were awarding a spinner's prize we would have given it to Murray Press who managed to leave the beach without his trap harness.

Thistle Hill had a bit of a shocker, racking up a massive 17 penalty points for failing to Sign On/Off, meet the standup time or register for one of the races.

Next round is on March 1st, if anyone would like to put up a worthy sacrifice to the wind gods before then it would be greatly appreciated.

Will be in Sydney to see it so ya better order some wind
cheers bear

Bear,

20 knot plus Nor Easters are waiting for you arrive back down under.

Bushy

theres a snowman in my backyard....I hope it will be warmer than that
cheers bear