Bala Catamaran Open Meeting Preview
by John Tuckwell 30 Apr 2012 11:14 BST
5-7 May 2012
The bank holiday weekend of the 5th, 6th and 7th see’s the annual Bala Catamaran Club open meeting hosted on the shores of the stunning Bala Lake in North Wales. This year’s event, the 35th in its running, is sponsored by Insurance4Dinghies by Towergate Insurance, GP sails, Nacra and Summit Watersports which shows the level of support for this event. Bala Catamaran Club is becoming the centre for inland catamaran sailing with the decline of more traditional catamaran venues.
This year’s event see’s the racing split between fast and slow fleets. There is also a youth fleet to cater for the ever increase number of young sailors at the club whose development and progress is actively encouraged. In times of few good news stories it is always encouraging to hear of clubs with a growing youth fleet. This has been assisted with the loan of 3 Dart 16’s loaned to the club by the United Kingdom Catamaran Racing Association (UKCRA).
So who are the ones to watch? Last year’s event was won by Nigel Lynn and Alan Nesbitt from Helensburgh with Pete Jones and Liz Howell supporting Welsh Catamaran sailing from Tresaith taking second and third. With the lack of results; Bala sailors have had to go away and have a word with themselves. So for this year there is the evergreen Pete Findlay sailing with James Findlay, the every fast Simon Flack sailing with Simon Baker in the Nacra Infusion and Hurricane stalwart John Tuckwell fresh from his win at the first open meeting at Datchet to name a few.
All that is required now is a sacrifice to the weather gods to ensure some good weather. This event is lining up to be a classic on the catamaran circuit and is a good prequel to the Enduro event which including the F18 TT later on in July. It has already benefited from not clashing with Carnac this year so it is hoped that this will go some way to increasing the turnout.
More information on the Bala Catamaran Club website.