West Lancashire Yacht Club RC Laser Winter Series - Round 6

RC Laser & Dragon Force Winter Series at West Lancs day 6 © Rob Wheeler / www.rclasers.com

The concluding event of a 6 event series was now upon us, but would the weather be a little kinder than the gales we had a fortnight ago? The forecast for the whole week had been for Easterly winds and a temperature for around 5 degrees. Would this mean we'd be all mummied up like Arctic explorers? In the end we were pleasantly surprised, the weather was fair, with light to moderate winds of around 10 -13 mph. It remained dry and mild throughout the day.

Three of the regulars were ready to steal the prizes, unless the unless 'Big Guns' turned up - the top skippers of the UK and probably the world's best, Dave Fowler, Shaun Holbeche and Derek Priestley would miss out on the spoils if they didn't include a third score. Not to disappoint us.they all turned up, although Derek having a love for both classes had decided to bring along his DragonForce boat instead.

Although we only had 9 skippers on this occasion,we had the pleasure of a new guy joining us, young Jaden the rescue man who was able to use Dave F's beloved 007 RC Laser in between his vital much needed rescue duties.

Jaden being a full size dinghy sailor has given of his weekend free time throughout this series to our benefit. We hoped he enjoyed his play with the little boat as rumour has it that he owns a full size Laser.

The same course was to be used for the RC Laser gang with the Dragoneers having a shorter sprint to the windward mark. With some cross over after their delayed start,would we be able to keep clear of each other? The roundings were all to Port repeating the triangle twice. As usual at this location the wind decided to change, forcing a course change, using the same three marks but in the opposite direction.

The first race had a mix of 'A' and 'B' rigs, but then the overpowered A sailors all decided to change down to the smaller B rig. Nine races in this session, with a mixed bag of results, but it was becoming clear who the front two running boats were as Dave and Shaun alternated in taking the lead.

After a spot of light lunch, cottage pie, sandwiches or a pint, the fun resumed. For some of it's not uncommon to have a near miss with a DragonForce, but we all seemed to have more than our fair share of ducking and diving. With the trickery of the light and confusing scale size of each class of boat it can catch you out. Skipper, Skip R. scooped up a Dragon to somehow have the whole boat clear out of the water spread out on his deck like a stranded beached whale. No harm was done, only the sound of the odd growl - no ration of Rum for him.

Colin achieved a third place on one of his best races ever, kept smiling like a Cat that got the cream for a good half hour afterwards. By the end of the day with the wind dropping a touch,some returned to the A rig.

We had a total of 16 races giving a wide spread of results,but the winner decided by a single point.

Round 6 Results:

1st Dave Fowler
2nd Shaun Holbeche
3rd Skip Reaser

For the Series 'Bell Trophy', a well deserved result reflecting much effort, dedication and freezing cold fingers and toes.

1st Shaun Holbeche
2nd Dave Fowler
3rd John Sharman

Full results can be found here.

Derek came first in the DragonForce fleet followed by Tim Long and thirdly Tim Lanigan. See the YachtsandYachting.com DragonForce class page for more details.

Great thanks has got to go to the Alan and Clive's team for a successful series. WLYC is an excellent venue with great facilities.

We have been promised the same again for next year, in the meantime keep an eye on the RC Laser calendar for the National TT series. Throughout the country there is bound to be an event close to you, to either observe or join in as a competitor.

Until the next time...