Laser Inland Championships at Grafham Water Sailing Club
by Eddie Mays, UKLA 15 Nov 2010 15:21 GMT
13-14 November 2010
Supported by LaserPerformance & Noble Marine
Undeterred by a relatively poor forecast for the weekend and the ever-present threat of Killer Shrimp, which has blighted many of our inland venues this season, 248 Lasers arrived at Grafham Water for the season’s finale.
One of the many advantages of Grafham Water is that with such large numbers the Standards & Laser 4.7s raced on one course under the jurisdiction of P.R.O. Peter Saxton whilst the 120+ Radials were with C.R.O. Simon Dabson’s race team.
The dull conditions on Saturday were accompanied by a SW’erly 10-12 kt breeze that faded during the afternoon to 7-8kts but was steady enough to allow a full schedule of races to be completed.
The distance to the start areas was further than expected and a few competitors arrived at the start too late for the start of the first race.
The 71 Standards were first away on Course A and youth sailor Martin Evans led two other youth helms, Robert Holmes & Jack Wetherell, to the finish in Race 1. In the next race experience, in the guise of slightly older helm Ian Morgan from Weston, came out on top just. Ian was chased home by Jack, Martin & Robert with yet another youth sailor Richard Cumpsty in 5th. The black flag caught out a number of sailors, mostly Masters’, in the final race but Jack rounded off a good day’s racing by taking his first gun ahead of Martin, leaving them with identical scores overnight.
The 60 Laser 4.7s used the inner loop of the trapezoidal Course A and included sailors from Belgium and Ireland as well as some new members attending their first event. Guernsey’s Johanna Asplund won the first race and was 2nd in the next behind Bowmoor’s Ollie Sellars. In the fading breeze Jake Braybrook won the last race from Lymington’s Rafaella Quinton leaving the overall table wide open.
The 122 Radials were split into groups and raced each other in a Round Robin series of double flights on Course B. Tobias Hamer took an early lead in the first start but was overhauled on the 2nd beat by Jon Emmett, sailing in his first meeting since breaking his arm earlier in the season. John Booth led the 2nd flight until he strayed too far to the left and was relegated to 3rd by Ben Robinson & Peter Newbury.
In the middle race the first start was won by Tom Britz, who blitzed the fleet from start to finish, with the minor places going to Alexander Alcock & Will Hackney. In the 2nd start Belgium’s Levi Slap fought his way to the front on the first lap and pulled away from Ben & Lorenzo Chiavarini. In Race 3A Levi continued his winning ways and his result was equalled by Jon Emmett in Race 3B to leave the pair of them tied on 2 pts overnight with Lorenzo the only sailor to record top 3 finishes in all races.
The sailors arrived at the club on Sunday morning in bright sunshine but with very little wind. The forecast promised wind later in the morning but to ensure the lessons from Saturday were learnt everyone went afloat early. The sun disappeared and conditions turned decidedly chilly on the water. Racing finally got underway by mid-day and there was enough time for one race for each fleet before the 13:30 time limit.
In the Standards it was again the group of four youth helms that fought it out at the front of the fleet. Jack cemented his overall victory by winning with Martin in 4th place behind Robert & Richard.
The Radials were divided into Gold & Silver fleets. In the Golf race Tom Britz nailed the start again, was the first to tack and established a winning lead on the first beat. Elliot Hanson followed him home but, more importantly Jon finished 3rd and took the overall win. His name goes on the trophy for the 10th time, some record! In the Silver fleet the first three boats to finish were the top three boats overall with Georgina Povall taking the title ahead of Alex Jardine and Toby Ayre.
There were new faces at the front of the Laser 4.7 fleet. Anthony Parke from Poole took the gun from Budworth’s Tom Joesbry but it was Ollie’s 3rd place that decided the overall title in Ollie’s favour.
Killer shrimp aside it was a very good weekend’s racing and a great way to finish the season.