Laser Open at Fishers Green Sailing Club

Lasers at Fishers Green © Kevin O’Brien

Lasers at Fishers Green © Kevin O’Brien

Visitors from Thorpe Bay, Ely, Aldenham and Herts County all converged on Fishers Green Sailing Club on Saturday 27th June to join with locals to form a fleet of 20 Lasers for the four-race Open Meeting, welcomed by a Force 3 Westerly and bright, warm sunshine.

Bill Brockbank, Race Officer for the day, got the boats on the water promptly but a 55 degree wind-shift just before the start caused a 15 minute delay to Race 1 after which the fleet got away first time, with one boat OCS. Aldous-Horne (FGSC) led the race from the first mark, with Tillyer (Thorpe Bay) second and Knight (Ely) third.

A well-disciplined fleet marshalled for the back-to-back Race 2, with a different boat identified as OCS this time. With the wind fighting the trees along the west shore the tail-enders bunched up with those ahead, all arriving at the leeward mark together and causing friendly banter to be exchanged – we assume so because no protests were brought ashore. A pity as the club is proud of its friendly, accessible and 'everyone learns' approach to protests, rules queries and the like. Aldous-Horne had more of a tussle to finish first, with Knight and Tillyer swapping their previous race positions.

Ready for the final two races of the day and refueled by an excellent lunch in true Fishers Green style, provided by Cadet parent Andrew Chadwick, the over-eager fleet caused a general recall for Race 3, and with the restart taking place under a black flag, nobody dared to infringe. Aldous-Horne led most of the race, Tillyer coming second but Knight buried in the pack. Tim le Couilliard (Aldenham) was 3rd, with his dad (both ex-Fishers Green) coming 4th.

At the start of Race 4 Aldous-Horne (who had already won the meeting by this time) showed us a party trick when caught OCS; pushing his sail out, and sailing backwards over the line before setting off to chase the fleet. In the circumstances winning would have been cheeky – he settled for 5th. Tim le Couilliard, who had shown flashes of speed all day, won, with Knight second and Tillyer 3rd

Overall it was home club sailor Matt Aldous-Horne winning with three firsts discarding a fifth. Jack Knight (Ely) and Chris Tillyer (Thorpe Bay) tied for 2nd place each with two seconds and a third to count, Chris taking 2nd on the tiebreak. All the top 9 boats sailed with full rigs.

First Junior was Aaron Chadwick (FGSC) sailing a Radial. First Lady – and longest commute, having driven back from Edinburgh – was Lynne Rochat (FGSC) also sailing a Radial.

Overall Results: