NeilPryde UK Laser National Championship at Largs Sailing Club - Day 5

Thursday turned out to be a long day and, in the end, a rather disappointing day for some of the competitors. When the Race Officers went afloat in the morning there was NW'erly 7 – 8 kt breeze that looked to be fairly steady. With all the Lasers on their way to the start area the wind died completely and there was no alternative but to send everyone back.

For the next couple of hours it was just a matter of sitting & waiting. After a late lunch the wind returned from the same direction, 300 degs, and at a healthy 10 kts. Racing got underway and for the majority of the afternoon went well. During the second race the arrival of a large dark cloud from the north presaged an increase in wind speed to 14 kts but then, as the Standards & 4.7s were finishing their race, there was a massive wind shift from 300 to 110 degs. The Radial Gold fleet was badly affected by this change and there was an appeal for redress by a group of the worst affected.

In the Standard fleet Anthony Parke scored his 2nd win of the week in the first race ahead of Oliver Davenport & Geoffrey Sherwood. Alistair Goodwin edged Sam Whaley for 4th place to keep the pressure on the leader. With nine races completed the 2nd discard kicked in and, whilst not affecting the top of the leader board too much, it undoubtedly helped Sam to consolidate his position when he won the 2nd race of the day. Oliver had another 2nd place ahead of Craig Williamson in 3rd. Jack Aitken & Alistair rounded out the top five places. Nothing is clear cut but almost certainly the winner of this fleet will come from the top 3; Sam, Alistair & Jack. It will depend on who makes the least mistakes, as usual.

The Laser 4.7 fleet were also relatively unaffected by the wind shift. In the first race Alex King took the gun ahead of Ireland's Emily Hill, her first top 5 finish of the week, with Milo Gill-Taylor 3rd and two more Irish helms Ben Martin & Anna McNulty filling out the Top 5. For the 2nd race the wind had moved enough at the end for the boats to have to beat to the finish line but the order had already been established and the results were fair. Arran Holman held off Alex for the win. Ireland's Rory Fekkes finished 3rd ahead of Josh Haynes, recovering from a poor patch in the middle races, and Nicole Hemeryck. Again it is hard to see the winner coming from anywhere but between the top three; Arran, Alex or Nicole.

The next fleet to finish were the Radial Silver fleet. Hamish Eckstein had started the day with a small lead over the others. He widened the gap further when he won the first race. He was followed home by another youth sailor Hugh Braidwood and junior helm Jack Shepherd. In the second race the PRO decided to shorten the race after three legs as the wind had shifted and was fading. Sawa Tretyakov took the gun but, unnoticed by the finishing recorders, Hamish had already rounded the mark and was on the next leg. Hamish requested and was granted redress. Sawa retained his single point score, which lifted him to 4th overall. Hugh came 2nd (5th o/a), Will was 3rd (2nd o/a). Hamish goes into the final day's racing with a 30 pt lead and would need a disaster to be overtaken.

Today was the start of the final series for the Gold fleet and matched all the top sailors for the first time. John Booth has been sailing extremely well all week. Even Jon Emmett admitted that John was probably the fastest boat in the fleet and, apart from his blemish in Race 5, has scored nothing but ones & twos. It was the same in the first race John takes the gun ahead of Jon. Ryan Glynn maintained his 3rd place overall by finishing 3rd. The fun really started in the last race. With the fleet well into the race the 180 deg wind shift caused major upsets. To quote from the bible, Mark 10:31 "But many who are first will be last, and the last first." After everyone had come ashore there was a 'mass' request for redress and after due consideration by the Protest Committee a Solomon like judgement was made to retrospectively abandon the race and hope to re-sail it tomorrow.

At the end of a long day afloat the day still had more to offer. After the Protest Hearings, by popular request, Jon Emmett ran a master class for a large audience and then followed that up by acting as Draw Master for the Harken prizes and the second Laser sail. He was so tired after all this extra-curricular activity that he had forgotten the name of the winner by the time I caught up with him late into the night.

The championship concludes tomorrow after two final races with the overall prize giving. The event is sponsored by NeilPryde and Harken UK. Full results for each fleet can be found on the event website.