Guy Fawkes Pursuit Race at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club
by Richard Catchpole 12 Nov 2021 09:57 GMT
7 November 2021
Guy Fawkes Pursuit Race at Leigh & Lowton © Gerard van den Hoek
Leigh & Lowton SC restarted their annual Guy Fawkes Pursuit Race on Sunday 7th November, having had to cancel last year for Covid lockdown reasons. The forecast for the day was for a squally day with gusts of up to 30 knots - the reality did not disappoint. Many resisted the temptation to go afloat and of those that did, some were back ashore without troubling the start line, due to breakages or big swims!
The juniors were not deterred as they set off first, eight of them in Optimists, Teras and Toppers showing the adults the way to go. The start of the race was so gusty that the advantage the stronger winds should have brought was offset by having to manage their boats around the course.
The adults started with some Solos, then Streaker, Lasers, Albacore, Scorpion, GP14 and finally the Blaze and the asymmetric fleets.
In all the chaos that the wind brought for the first couple of laps, some struggled to find their way around the course and made some navigational errors. Then the wind abated and the race became a race at last, not survival.
The viewing spectators were debating who would win out - would it be Ben in his Optimist hanging on to his lead until he was overhauled on the last lap, or the battle between Steve and Paul in the Streaker/Radial combo who fought all the way round. It looked like it could have been Mark in the Blaze towards the end or Alastair and Helen in their RS200, but the clock ran out for them and they couldn't reign in Steve who held out to win by a minute or so.
Thanks to the usual OOD team of Howard Green & co for another great event.
Overall Results:
Pos | Class | Sail No | Helm | Crew | R1 |
1 | Streaker | 1942 | Steve Blackburn | | 1 |
2 | Blaze | 760 | Mark Fearnley | | 2 |
3 | RS 200 | 1509 | Alistair Norris | Helen Norris | 3 |
4 | Laser Radial | 193713 | Paul Heath | | 4 |
5 | Wayfarer | 10747 | Louise Mckeand | Nigel Hall | 5 |
6 | Optimist | 5500 | Ben Welfare | | 6 |
7 | Laser Radial | 73 | Glyn Purnell | | 7 |
8 | Solo | 5909 | Andy Fox | | 8 |
9 | Topper | 33701 | Lewis Bacon | | 9 |
10 | Albacore | 8233 | Mike Banner | Mark Atherton | 10 |
11 | Solo | 5272 | Dave Kelsall | | 11 |
12 | Topper | 47026 | Paul Roberts | | 12 |
13 | Solo | 5845 | Stuart Van Den Hoek | | 13 |
14 | Lark | 2492 | Paul Graham | Ollie Thornton | 14 |
15 | Wayfarer | 10700 | Christopher Chadwick | Michael Chadwick | 15 |
16 | Optimist | 5243 | Alex Welfare | | 16 |
17 | Scorpion | 2031 | Peter Crowther | Dave Thompson | 17 |
18 | Blaze | 671 | Chas Coghill | | DNF |
18 | Blaze | 684 | Martin Clift | | DNF |
18 | Blaze | 861 | Mark Cuthbert | | DNF |
18 | Enterprise | 22706 | Darryl Bedford | Paul Bedford | DNF |
18 | Laser Radial | 208745 | Ross Southwell | | DNF |
18 | RS 400 | 947 | Harvey Jackson | Chris Roberts | DNF |
18 | RS 400 | 1396 | Mark Dingsdale | Ness Evans | DNF |
18 | RS Aero 7 | 1118 | Gareth Williams | | DNF |
18 | RS Aero 7 | 1700 | Steve Norris | | DNF |
18 | RS Aero 7 | 2324 | Mike Baldwin | | DNF |
18 | RS Aero 7 | 3314 | Julia West | | DNF |
18 | RS Tera Sport | 1009 | Jasmine Perry | | DNF |
18 | Solo | 5120 | Andrew Roberts | | DNF |
18 | Solo | 5350 | Chris Helsby | | DNF |
18 | Solo | 5849 | Darren Nield | | DNF |
18 | Wayfarer | 10049 | Fred Duran | James Duran | DNF |