Solo and Laser Open Meeting Clevedon Sailing Club
by Andy Willcocks 21 Jul 2008 23:45 BST
13 July 2008
Sunshine and a steady south-westerly breeze provided near perfect conditions for the 10 Solos and 18 Lasers taking part in the Clevedon round of the Traveller’s series. Race Officers, Dee Wood & Nathan Batchelor set a large figure of eight course starting inshore from the club end.
Lasers
18 boats close tacking along the shore lead to a fairly hectic first beat. Tim Keighly and Jon Wood were first to the windward mark closely followed by John Lapes and R Lymdoss. Keighly and Wood maintained suficient lead to take first and second places followed by Lapes and Martin Gibson who took full advantage of the waves on the downwind legs. Keighly once again took an early lead in the second race this time followed by John Ling finding his normal good form. Lapes showed consistency with another third place with Wood just behind him.
The fleet headed out to sea from the start of the last race except Gibson who took the middle line to take advatage of the earlier turning inshore tide. Yet again Keighly rounded the windward mark first but with Gibson on his transom and local sailor Sam Coombs just behind followed by Ling and Wood. Not needing the last race to count Keighly retired at the end of the first lap leaving Gibson and Coombs pulling ahead of the pack in the freshening winds to finish first and second.
Laser results
1st T Keighly – West Riding SC
2nd M Gibson – Clevedon SC
3rd J Wood - Avon SC
4th J Ling – Upton Warren SC
Solos
In the Solo fleet race 1 got away cleanly with Alex East leading from start to finish closely pursued by Robin Goff, Andy Willcocks & Colin Newton. Race 2 again saw the fleet short tacking along the shore to keep out the tide but this time Willcocks emerged ahead at the top mark and led to the finish. East came in second with Newton third followed by Richard White, Sarah Hotchkiss and Charles Davidson after Goff obligingly capsized on the beat.
With all to play for between the top four, the last race took place over a falling tide. Tactics changed and the fleet immediately tacked out to sea for the tidal advantage. With the wind increasing the racing remained tight with the leading boat continually changing between the down and upwind legs. However Willcocks upwind speed eventually give him the advantage finishing ahead of East and Newton.
Solo results
1st A Willcocks – Clevedon SC
2nd A East – Clevedon SC
3rd R Goff – Clevedon SC