Extreme 40s at Cardiff - Race part 1

This is what starts looks like for the Extreme 40s, and we got to see 8 of them packed into three hours on Saturday afternoon.

The area to manoeuvre these rockets ships was remarkably small and with the wind gusting from 5 to 15 knots there were quite a few re-starts as boats surged across the line.

Then they'd zoom off downwind, windward hull flying high in a way that even the total non-sailor could appreciate:

Up at that end of the course there was a downwind / upwind pair of legs but as Cardiff Bay is under a nautical mile from end to end and these boats were at times doing 20 knots it wasn't long before they were screaming back down again, often hidden under clouds of spray:

Down by where the main crowd (including me) were waiting there were a pair of buoys that the fleet of 9 yachts had to choose which to go round, dodging those who had already gone round. It was all within a few metres of the shore and there really was no room spare.

Things were about to get interesting: