Laser Open at Deben Yacht Club

Twenty competitors, evenly spread between the home club and visitors, enjoyed three back-to-back races held down-river from Woodbridge, in a wide stretch of the river between Methersgate and Waldringfield, enabling the race officer to set big triangular courses. Glorious sunshine, a pleasant south-easterly 2-3 blowing up the river, and a strong incoming tide provided interesting and challenging conditions for some close racing, and a thoroughly enjoyable event.

At the start of race 1 the fleet immediately split, with about half heading for each bank, to get out of the strong tide. Left paid handsomely, with Daniel Davis (DYC) and David Copp (Waldringfield) emerging well ahead, and Chris Woodard (Aldenham/DYC) leading the chasing group across from the right. A downwind capsize cost Copp second place, and Woodard slowly reigned-in Davis, taking the lead on the final beat to the line, with Copp recovering to secure third, followed by Dave O’Riordan (DYC) and David Hawthorne (Hunts).

Race 2 saw the fleet spread fairly evenly across the width of the river going up the first beat. Again left paid, with Daniel Davis again first around the windward mark, but the leading group also contained several boats that had managed to get a favourable lee-bow by heading straight up the middle of the adverse tide! Davis held on to win, followed by Harry Ogden (WSC), Matthew Davis (DYC) and Stuart Absolom (Thorpe Bay).

With a 1st and a 2nd, Daniel Davis was looking the clear favourite for the meeting, with Woodard (1st and 10th) and Ogden (2nd and 6th) both needing to win the final race to take it from him. With the tide slackening the fleet again spread across the river, but Woodard kept faith with the right bank, and this time it paid dividends! Leading round the windward mark he was chased hard by Wes Absolom (Thorpe Bay), who briefly took the lead on the long run back towards Woodbridge, but these two broke well clear from the rest of the fleet, with Woodard taking the race and the meeting. Wes Absolom took a comfortable second, with Mark Hodge (WSC) leading home the pursuing bunch, followed by Ogden, Copp and Daniel Davis.

Amongst the Radials, with their results extracted from the overall fleet, Will Branton (WSC), Ruth Baker (DYC) and Christopher Burn (WSC) were all tied on 3 points, with the trophy going to Branton by virtue of him beating the other two in the final race.

Overall Results: