Today race at the Lympstone lake mark was set in very shallow water and the merlin fleet rudders were hitting the bottom very hard and as a result the rudders were coming up making sailing difficult especially with spinnakers up, there was almost a serious collision between Mark Elkington and myself today .I had a conversation with John Allen after todays race about depth gauge sticks which he informed me are always in the rescue boats. So please can Race offices ask rescue boat crews for depth of water checks.