SUTTON BINGHAM SC, YeovilSomewhere between Lake Garda and Bermuda....
More photos of the action from our great day out at Sutton Bingham, courtesy of Chris Bottomley
HERE, t
ogether with Saffron Gallagher's shots HERE.
With the southerly wind funnelling down the long narrow section Sutton Bingham is Yeovil's answer to the wind compression under the cliffs of Lake Garda and South Somerset's best kept secret!!!
There was significant wind compression off the headlands and lulls in the small bays. Garda rules apply - bounce off the headlands and avoid sailing into the bays.
With the lake narrowing at the windward mark and the lake opening out to the join of the 'T' shape at the leeward mark the top of the beat was much fruitier than the leeward end. This was the opposite to the norm on a small lake when the windward mark is usually under a shore line!
The narrow course, bounded by the shoreline, also produced tactics similar to the current Americas Cup racing in Bermuda that we have been glued to our scenes watching. The tactical considerations of zig zagging upwind either in phase or out of phase with the boats around you. In the strong breeze it was good to minimise tacks and often if you tried to tack on a shift it was too short lived to be worthwhile.
With the race officer treating us all to a downwind slalom with 4 gybe marks, giving 3 reaches and 2 runs each lap we might as well have been sailing the angles like the AC50s! Even on the runs it paid the deviate with the gust lines to both stay in ma pressure and achieve best acceleration.
Same again next year please!
SUTTON BINGHAM SC 
In the afternoon the race officer treated us all to a 4 gybe downwind slalom giving some blast reaching with plenty of corners!
SUTTON BINGHAM SC - Sat 10 June 
