RC Lasers at the West Lancashire Yacht Club 24 Hour Race
by Dave Fowler 17 Sep 2010 14:43 BST
11-12 September 2010
Once again the RC lasers were invited to be at the West Lancs. 24hr race, to be part of the 4th sailing wonder, thanks to laser owners; we had 10 boats for people to borrow. We started at 10.00am on the Saturday with the ‘B’ rigs and a lot of very keen sailors of all ages.
This year we has become a little more organised with budding sailors signing on for a race, where you had 5-6 mins of getting used to the boat (which 90% of the youngsters did not require) and then a 2 lap race around our mini Olympic course. With a turn round with the next race of signees, with only a quick pause to watch the start of the main event race, the lasers sailed non stop till a break was called at 16:00, to change batteries for the team racing event which started at 17:00.
Nine teams of 3 sailors entered the team racing event. With the race format of last man loose, meant that they had to work together to win, as it was a knockout event. After 2 ½ hours of racing Birmingham University had won with the captain showing some great skill in doling out turns to the other teams.
We went back to general racing and just as dusk came the squalls hit with the little lasers planning and nose diving all over the place. With the loss of the gazebo due to the squally wind it was time to call it a night.
Sunday dawned and the queue was already forming for the next session, due to the wind strength we started with the ‘C’ rig and progressed to the ‘D’ (storm) rig. With racing commencing, some of the more experience sailors wanted to challenge us (the owners) to a race, so we obliged them. It was a good try, but a bit more practice would be required before the rematch next year.
All sailing was ended just before the finishing guns of the main race at midday. And the big pack away started.
During the whole weekend we had been selling tickets to win an RC Laser, this year donated partly by the RC Laser Association, Andy Kissick, Dave Fowler and Dave Edwards, Raising over £400 split between Sail4Cancer and the ME Association.
The boat was won by young Liam who spent most of his weekend sailing the Lasers, now he can continue, and hope to see him on the circuit, maybe I need to sort a junior trophy for our TT Circuit next year.
A big thank you to all the RC Laser skippers who lent their boats, and to those who came and help with the running of the event, Andy and I are very grateful for your time, and helping over 200 people have a sail of an RC Laser.