NeilPryde UK Laser National Championship at Largs Sailing Club - Day 2

The Radial fleet on day 2 of NeilPryde UK Laser Nationals at Largs © Paul Williamson

Conditions were undoubtedly tougher for all the competitors today as the tail end of the bad weather swept across the north of the UK but there were not the excessive gusts that the GP 14s suffered in Ireland. We hope that everyone over there is now fully recovered and their championships continue successfully.

Overnight the wind had backed to Westerly and, whilst the mean wind speed was about 20 kts, the gusts were up to 24 kts and the lulls down to 10 kts. The change in wind direction was a definite advantage enabling the Race Officers to complete two races for all the rigs. The start line was laid just off the clubhouse, to the delight of the spectators, and the trapezoidal course was laid in the channel with the windward marks towards Great Cumbrae, giving as much shelter as possible.

All fleets used the outer loop of the course which helped with the allocation of safety cover and as a further precaution and, to give greater safety cover, the racing sequence was extended with only two fleets racing at any one time. Read this slowly as I shall write it only once. The Standards were called afloat first and started in their first race. Then the Radial Blue Fleet was released and started. With the Radials on course and the Standards finished Race 1 the sequence was repeated. Standards started, Radial Blues finished and then started their Race 2. Standards finished Race 2 and sent ashore thereby releasing the Laser 4.7 fleet to race. Finally the Radial Yellow fleet went afloat & raced and apart from a couple of facial injuries and a small amount of broken gear everyone was back in time for tea.

The front runners in the Standard fleet had a very mixed day. There were race wins for Cameron Tweedle & Sam Whaley but the most consistent sailor was junior helm Hamish Munro with a 2, 4 scoreline. With four races completed the first discard is allowed and this has enabled Alistair Goodwin to discard his Race 4 8th place and lead overnight from Sam Whaley. Quite often the Laser 4.7 fleet has one helm that tends to dominate the fleet. This year looks as if it may buck the trend. Irish sailor Nicole Hemeryck sailed extremely well today to win her first race and come 2nd behind 14 yr old Milo Gill-Taylor in the other race but both Arran Holman & Alex King are also sailing very consistently and only a couple of points separate all three.

The Radial Blue fleet starts were comparatively peaceful affairs compared to the rush of blood to the heads of the Radial Yellow fleet helms where both their races saw boats excluded by the 'black flag' rule. The most notable names were Irishman Liam Glynn in the first race and Jamie Calder in the second. Jon Emmett & John Booth are still slogging it out, as they have been for over a season now. Both raced in the Blue fleet today and ended with a win & a 2nd place apiece to share the top of the leaderboard. They are joined on 4 pts by Jamie Calder, who like Liam has discarded his black flag result. Liam brother's Ryan is one point behind his sibling on 6 pts. All very, very close.

The evening's 'entertainment' was the Association AGM followed by the NeilPryde Draw and the new Laser sail from LaserPerformance was won by family member Marshall King from Royal Lymington.

There are another six races scheduled before the end of the championship on Friday. The regatta is sponsored by NeilPryde and Harken UK.

Full results for each fleet can be found on the event website.