Laser National Championships at South Caernarvonshire Yacht Club - Day 3

With the forecast for too much wind later in the week, the Race Officer decided to schedule three races on Tuesday in 15–20 knots at the Sailboats.co.uk UK National and Open Laser Championships.

Standard

In the first race, it was the boats that started at the port end of the line that gained the advantage, with Craig Williamson rounding first, Jack Hopkins second and George Coles third. Despite a big left-hand swing in the wind, these positions were maintained until the finish.

In Race 6, the boats that went left took advantage of the swinging wind. Matt Howard led from start to finish and was followed by Craig Williamson and Calum Rosie in second and third respectively.

In the final race of the day, the course was shifted to the left and the wind had increased. Joseph Drake made a good call tacking off early and led around the top mark, closely followed by Matt Howard and Craig Williamson. The first two boats sailed away from the rest of the fleet with Joseph Drake taking the win.

Overall, Matt Howard is leading the Standard fleet with 7 points, Craig Williamson is on 12 and Jack Hopkins has 22.

Standard results here.

Radial

After a short wait for the 4.7s to finish their starts, there were three races for the Radials today.

Race 5 saw Ellie Cumpsty make the best of the first beat but fell into a hole down the first run, which George Povall capitalized on to lead the race to the finish, with Ben Whaley doing a superb catch up job to take second.

Race 6 saw a big shift to the left and the race was dominated by Milo Gill-Taylor. Jon Emmett held onto second, and Povall did a great job to pull through the fleet and take fourth.

Race 7 saw the wind build, once again to over 20 knots, and it became increasing shifty. Whaley made the best of these shifts to lead Povall across the line.

Overall, the day easily belonged to George Povall, the only sailor to have three top four finishes, and she is now in second overall. Ben Whaley is leading the fleet by five points. Jon Emmett is just behind George Povall in third.

Tomorrow's briefing will see if it is possible to race on big Wednesday and Thursday, not to be outdone, is now promising even more wind than Wednesday!

Radial results here.

4.7

In Race 5, pin end was biased and Nick Welbourne port tacked the fleet and rounded the windward mark second after Thomas Parkhurst. However. he received a yellow flag downwind for a Rule 42 infringement. Thomas Parkhurst then put in a convincing win, followed by Eve McMahon in second and Matt Beck in third.

Race 6 was close between the top four boats. Eve McMahon got her first win of the event, closely followed by Matt Beck, with Tom Mitchell in third.

In the final race of the day, Matt Beck finished first with Nick Welbourne in second and Tom Higgins in third.

At the end of today's racing, Matt Beck is back up in first overall, Thomas Parkhurst is in second, Nick Welbourne in third, Eve McMahon in fourth and Tom Mitchell in fifth.

4.7 results here