Laser Thames Valley Series at Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

Daniel Wigmore Standard Rig winner at the Island Barn Laser Open © Jim Champ

Iona Dixon, Radial winner at the Island Barn Laser Open © Jim Champ

"Cracking day, Gromit", I thought as I walked up the steps to the reservoir and saw a splendidly brisk south come south easterly breeze and a reasonable turnout of visiting Lasers. And so, I hope it proved. The black flag was waved at the briefing, but not again thereafter which is one sign of a positive event...

Race one started with two sound signals, and just one boat having to return, and by the time the leaders had reached the third mark of the triangle/sausage course something of a pattern was being set. In the lead, and sailing I thought superbly, was Iona Dixon from Docklands in a Radial, being chased very hard, close, and equally capably by Daniel Wigmore from Grafham in a full rig boat.

Already at this stage there was quite a gap behind these two, and then the pack, with roughly equal numbers of Radial and Standard Rig boats, was battling hard. The two leaders changed places several times, but in the end Wigmore just got the gun, with William Birchall from QMRSC, in a Radial, picking up 3rd.

Race two started in similar vane, with Wigmore leading and Dixon chasing hard, but at the top of the first run the Radial topmast gave way, and Ms Dixon was towed home to make a selection from her impressive collection of spare parts. Meanwhile Wigmore hurtled round in full control and generous lead, whilst others came a cropper, notably at the end of the run. Second eventually went to Simon Hamment from Papercourt (Standard rig), with Birchall second again.

After lunch matters resumed as before. There was plenty of sparkling sailing, inspection of the undersides of boats, technical runs and high speed reaches, but in the end both races were 1,2,3 for Wigmore/Dixon/Birchall. Particularly notable was Wigmore's fleet crossing port end start in the final race.

So Daniel Wigmore won the standard fleet with four wins, and Iona Dixon the Radial fleet with, effectively, four more wins. Simon Hamment was 2nd Standard rig and 4th overall, and Chris Nash from Maidenhead 3rd Standard and 6th overall. William Birchall was 2nd Radial and 3rd overall, and Robert Blois 3rd Radial, 1st Master and 5th overall. So the Radials and Standard rigs were pretty well mixed up together in the conditions.

High speed reach at Island Barn Reservoir Laser Open - photo © Jim Champ

Overall Results:

Mark Room! Island Barn Laser Open - photo © Jim Champ