Noble Marine Laser Radial Spring Qualifier at Stokes Bay Sailing Club

The second Spring Qualifier of 2015 took place at Stokes Bay Sailing Club with a 12–15kts offshore wind forecast. With 88 sailors entered, the decision was made to split the Radial fleet and Saturday was sailed in a round-robin format.

Strong cross tide, shifty and gusty conditions characterised the weekend which meant tricky racing with big losses and gains to be made around the course. Race 1 in the yellow/blue flight had a large split in the fleet up the first beat with the left-hand side coming in favoured. Jon Emmett played the left well to round in first with a significant lead over the rest of the fleet which he held till the finish line, followed by Georgina Povall and Hannah Snellgrove. True to form, Ken had the black flag up for the green/red fleets start, and with a strong tide, a few unlucky sailors were caught out. Jamie Calder, Chloe Barr and Giles Kuzyk all managed a clear start to finish first, second and third respectively.

By Race 2 most of the fleet had cottoned on to the gain on the left of the beat which made for tighter racing off the start line to hold a good lane out to the left. Joseph Mullan claimed the bullet in the first flight with a close finish from second to fifth with Adam Russ just edging ahead of Haydn Griffiths, Dan Whiteley and Ed Higson. The second flight saw Jon Emmett in the lead again with Ellie Cumpsty and Ben Whaley completing the top three.

By the final race of the day, the tide had started to weaken and turn which allowed some sailors to work the shifts more. Ben Elvin took advantage of this by taking some shifts from the right and pulling ahead of the fleet that had gone hard left. In the second flight Emmett continued to dominate the fleet and finished an impressive day with three bullets in tricky conditions.

The conditions on Sunday were almost identical to Saturday and the Radials were divided into gold and silver. The first race kicked off with the majority of the Gold Fleet heading towards the left. However, it was those who started at the starboard end and played the shifts to get to the top left who came through ahead. Ben Elvin, Dan Martin and Jack Shepherd led by a considerable distance around the windward mark, but the long reach and strong tide caused the fleet to bunch up with positions changing throughout the fleet and lots to be gained from sailing low. Despite this, Elvin managed to extend his lead on the second reach and scored his second bullet of the event.

Race 5 was won by Emmett, closely followed by Stephen Cockerill in second and Jamie Calder in third. The final race of the day was led by Jordan Giles who sailed a great first beat, approaching the first mark on the port layline taking advantage of the favourable top left. Sailing a fast reach and not getting swept up with the tide meant that by the leeward mark Giles, Povall and Emmett had pulled away from the rest of the fleet. With an added beat in the last race the finishing positions were Povall first, Emmett second and Giles third. A solid last race from Jon Emmett put him in first overall with a 10-point lead ahead of Georgina Povall in second and Ben Elvin in third. First Youth was Jamie Calder in fourth.

Overall, it was a great event with all six races completed despite the freezing cold weather. A big thanks to all the Stokes Bay volunteers who helped out, especially those pulling boats up and down the beach all afternoon!

Overall Results: (top three)

1 Jon Emmett, 6pts
2 Georgina Povall, 16pts
3 Ben Elvin, 23pts

Full results can be found here.