Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club Revett Series - Day 5
by Paul Heath 15 Dec 2016 07:36 GMT
11 December 2016
Sunday 11th December saw the final two races of the five week long Revett Winter Series at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club, Pennington Flash. 47 boats took to the water in similar conditions to last weekend with a Force 4 breeze to start with but this time blowing from the west.
This gave us full use of the length of the Flash and the race team of Team Catchpole didn't let us down as they set a great 'around the cans' course for the fleets apart from the Asymmetrics who, much to their delight, had another weekend of windward/leewards.
Lasers
Depending on how the results went it was possible that one of three boats could take the series win. Paul Heath (LLSC) took the lead in the 10 boat fleet and held off his closest rival, Stuart Belfield (LLSC), to take the win and with it the series. Belfield crossed the line second but had to settle for third overall in the race as new to the series Sam Platt (Bolton SC – Radial) sailed well to take second.
Handicap
Next away were the 12 boats that started under the handicap fleet flag. Mike Banner/Mark Atherton (LLSC – Albacore) already had the series win so sat this one out. The race itself saw a close battle at the front of the fleet between the three Phantoms that took the first three places in the race. It was so close that race winner Martin Knott (LLSC) crossed the line 1 second ahead of Steve Dawson (LLSC) while third placed Steve Norris was 35 seconds behind Dawson.
Asymmetric
Going into this weekend Dave Exley/Nigel Hall (LLSC – RS400) already had the series won but second down to fourth place was wide open. Again there was close racing on the water between the 13 boats but when the results were eventually worked out on handicap it was closer than anyone could have been imagined.
Exley/Hall took the win but there was a three way tie for second between Mike Allen (Bala SC – Devoti-D One), Hamish Gledhill/Simon Dowse (WRSC – RS400) and Greg Booth (PDSC – RS100) This relegated Paul/Jude Allen (LLSC- RS400) to fifth.
Solo
In the 9 boat fleet Brian Sprague (LLSC) already had the series won and just to underline it he went out and won the first race of the day. In the overall standings it was close and Stuart van Den Hoek (LLSC) did his claim for second overall in the series a world of good by finishing second in the race with Tom Waltz (LLSC) third.
Juniors
The top two places in this series were already decided before the 3 competing boats went afloat. The top two were missing and out of those afloat only Tom Brindley (Redesmere SC – Laser Radial) had done enough to qualify in the series while the other two boats were first timers.
Ben/Dan Latham (LLSC - 420) found the conditions to their liking as they romped home for the win. Brindley was second and Thomas Fielding-Link (LLSC – Optimist) finished third.
After lunch the fleets launched in a slightly lighter breeze that slowly began to drop off.
Lasers
This race saw Steve Wroe (LLSC) take an early lead which he held for 2 laps but he was hotly pursued by Howard Green (LLSC) who eventually overtook him to cross the line first. Heath also managed to pass Wroe to cross the line in second but just behind Heath was the Radial of Charlotte Greenhalgh (LLSC – Radial) who, having sorted out the correct starting sequence and not missing the start by 30 seconds like she had in the first race, took the overall race win on handicap. A second place in the race secured Green second overall in the series from Belfield.
Asymmetric
The Allens took the race win from Exley/Hall while Booth scored another third. Mike Allen could only finish fourth overall and Gledhill/Dowse fifth. When the dust settled it meant that Paul/Jude Allen took second in the series with 11 points, Mike Allen third with 12 points and Gledhill/Dowse fourth with 13 points losing out on countback to Catchpole/Coop who were on OD duty.
Solo
In the previous race Malcom Waddington (LLSC) suffered his worst result of the series by finishing fifth but in this race he upped his game to take the win. Sprague was second and Stuart van Den Hoek third.
Waddingtons victory was enough to see him leapfrog Stuart to take second in the series on countback.
Juniors
The same three boats took to the water and the overall finishing order was as per the previous race.
As the Revett series comes to an end we now have a short break to catch our breath before Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club storms into 2017 with its New Years Day pursuit race (Optimist start time 12.40pm) followed by the Tipsy Icicle series which starts on Sunday 8th January.
Full details, including how to enter the pursuit race and the Tipsy Icicle series plus full SI's and NOR, can be found via the LLSC Webcollect page: https://webcollect.org.uk/llsc/event/winter-2016-2017
Revett results to date at www.llsc.org.uk/LLSC/Results/2016/Revett.htm