Noble Marine Laser Radial Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Sponsored by Noble Marine

Saturday dawned mostly sunny with a few clouds and a building breeze. The fleet made it out for a prompt 12pm start. The Radials, being split fleet, started after the Standards and 4.7s and sailed an inner loop, trapezoid course.

Race 1, like all other starts that day, was started without the need for a black flag and no one being scored OCS. The line had a slight pin-end bias and a lone tree in the middle of an adjacent field provided the perfect transit (perhaps the reason no one was over the line?).

Coming off the line, it was those who hiked hard and kept their lane to the left-hand side that did best as the left had better breeze and solid left shifts, a theme that was common throughout the weekend. Downwind it was all about spotting the gusts coming down the course and linking them together whilst keeping your wind clear amongst the tightly packed fleet.

In Race 1a, Jon Emmett managed to get his nose ahead on the first beat and then extended his lead downwind linking the gusts well but being chased hard by Edward Higson who was never off the pace all weekend. A close battle ensued behind, but the decisive moment came when Emmett decided to go downwind for an extra loop, followed by three or four others. John Booth profited from this and reached off to the outer loop with Daniel Whiteley just behind and Edward Higson being the first of the 'extra loopers' to point up and head to the correct buoy. It was Merrick Stanley, however, who got the better of both of them to take second behind John.

In Race 1b it was a tussle between Matt Whitfield, Jamie Calder and Ben Elvin who were hot on the heels of Joseph Mullen, showing speed that would get him results no worse than 8th all weekend. Although extending his lead early on, Joseph eventually got overhauled by Matt, Ben and Jamie with Ben spotting the breeze and linking the shifts over on the left side of the course to take the win by a good margin.

In Race 2a Emmett led from the off and took the win with Jamie improving on his 3rd from the previous race to get 2nd followed by Joseph and Daniel Wigmore.

In Race 2b Matt Whitfield rounded the windward mark first then confidently sailed away from the fleet linking the pressure well to extend from John Booth and Ben Elvin to pull out an unassailable lead. Ben, Edward Higson and John enjoyed a close scrap behind with John and Edward finding a gust downwind to nip past Ben before the finish.

Race 3a saw Jon Emmett first around the first mark again with Ben Elvin close behind. These two then pulled away downwind. On the beat Jon went right, Ben went left. The left came good and Ben rounded first. Jon, however, pulled back enough distance down the run to get inside at the final mark and took the win by less than a boat length.

Jamie Calder, Jordan Giles and John Booth had a tight race in Race 3b. John headed down the final run ahead but got yellow flagged allowing Jamie and Jordan to get past.

At the end of day one, three successful races had been completed, the fleet was split into gold and silver and four people had a 1, 2, 3 with Jon Emmett ahead with 1, 1, 12.

Day 2 and the wind had increased. It was again from a south westerly direction but was more overcast and a little bit colder with many people, learning from the day before, opting to wear far more clothing. This day was to see many capsizes, and even a broken mast, with strong gusts pulsing down the lake. The start lines were pretty much square with maybe a slight Committee Boat bias.

With everyone in the Gold Fleet being keen to grab the perfect Committee Boat start, the black flag had to make an appearance in Race 4 with two people being black flagged on the second attempt to start. On the first beat, those who went hard right and those who went left were both looking good until the gust on the left yet again proved to be dominant allowing Jamie Calder, Jon Emmett and Ben Elvin to cross ahead of the fleet. Mullen, John Booth, Whitfield, Edward Higson and Tom Graham did their best to catch them with John managing to get slightly ahead and reel in Ben up the last upwind thanks, in no small part, to Ben's downhaul snapping.

In the Silver Fleet it was Lewis Humphries who dealt with the conditions best and took the win covering the fleet well once his lead had been established.

In Race 5 the wind had increased further with gusts that must have been verging on 30kts. It was now getting to the point where you had to hike hard and dump mainsheet just to stop the boat from screwing up into the wind. The leaders in the Gold Fleet once again came from the left and, again, it was Jon Emmett that snuck round ahead and took the gusts downwind to extend his lead. Behind him Jamie Calder, Daniel Martin and Matt Whitfield coped best in the gusty conditions to take the next three places.

Milo Gill-Taylor out hiked the competition in the Silver Fleet to take the win ahead of Matthew Haji-Michael who was adding to his 4th in the previous race and proving to be the most consistent in the gusty conditions.

With such a slick turnaround of races there was plenty of time for a sixth race and thankfully the wind had abated slightly. At the first attempt at a Gold Fleet start those at the Committee Boat again seemed overly keen and six boats were black flagged including Matt Whitfield, Jamie Calder and Edward Higson. However, they had all sailed so consistently that they could discard their black flag without falling out of the top seven. Again it was the left that paid and it was John Booth who got around the windward mark first with Jon Emmett and Ben Elvin close behind. Jon got past John downwind seeking out a large gust on the left-hand side but then got passed by John on the next upwind who hooked into a right shift. On the next downwind Jon and Ben passed John and that is how it stayed to the finish with Joseph Mullen and Daniel Whitely finishing off their Inlands with another solid result just behind.

It was extremely tight on points between the leaders in the Silver Fleet and it was Oliver Blackburn who won the last race to secure 5th place overall and pip Robby Boyd and David Raimbault who all finished on the same points.

Overall in the Gold Fleet, this left Jon Emmett only counting firsts and deservedly taking the championship win. Jamie Calder was Mr Consistency with nothing less than a 3rd taking 2nd overall. Behind, Ben Elvin and John Booth were tied on points with Ben taking 3rd on countback.

In the Silver Fleet, Matthew Haji-Michael had secured first place racking up only nine points on Sunday's three races to win by an 11-point margin. Eleanor Craig took 2nd, building on her solid performance in the qualifying rounds with Milo Gill-Taylor just one point behind and Anya Haji-Michael 4th overall on countback.

Rutland once again put on a fantastic event and this, coupled with the strong winds (which may well have been too much for sea sailing), delivered some great racing. Many thanks to all involved.

Overall Results: (top three)

Gold Fleet
1 Jon Emmett, 5pts
2 Jamie Calder, 10pts
3 Ben Elvin, 12pts

Silver Fleet
1 Matthew Haji-Michael, 66pts
2 Eleanor Craig, 77pts
3 Milo Gill-Taylor, 78pts