Helensburgh Sailing Club Season Ends

In with a Bang out like a Damp Squib !

Last Sunday saw the culmination of Helensburgh Sailing Clubs Dinghy Racing season with the last race of the Autumn frosbite series sailed , the promising Southeasterly didn't quite come up with the goods and the fleet were left struggling to complete their second round in most cases ,worse for some!

Racing in the lasers was hot and with overall places in the series at stake 6 boats battled it out Colin Greer making a guest appearance sailing Fraser Grays boat pulled out an impressive lead over the fleet which included his brother "Champ" Graeme Greer, but as the wind died to a vespre the fleet caught him , Neil Rosie sneaked by for 1st followed by Kenny Mitchell 2nd leaving Colin to finish 3rd. Kenny Manderson found the light winds to his displeasure ,but still won the series overall by a narrow margin , Kenny Mitchell 2nd and "Champ" Greer 3rd.

In the Toppers a deflated fleet appeared in the shape of Alistair Manderson sailing alone. Alistair took 2nd overall in the series with Thomas Mc Laren first.

Fast Handicap saw Merv Wrigt in his Blaze win on the day and overall. Ollie Milton took second in the race. Darren Booth and Chris Laverty were second in the series sailing an ISO but as they couldn't better their overall result took Darrens new toy out for a spin , a Laser 5000 which should see some interesting racing when up against the Busby 5000 next year.

The slow handicap class was represnted on the day by sole Radial sailer Ross Flatman , the Radials dominated the class and their numbers swelled with the older Topper sailers moving on with up to 7 seen on the line, this will be a class to watch next year with their own class start.. Ross took overall series victory with Gavin Jeffrey second.

The cat class which has seen the most consistent high turnouts of the year saw a lone pair take part with second overall to compete for , the conditions on the day saw the faster Hurricane Sport "Weird Fish" of Homer and Lowe pull steadily away from the Dart 18 of Tony Abraham against the increasing tide , poor Tony got stuck at the narrows and washed back after 3 looks at the mark , whilst the "Fush " flew to victory on the day and second overall. Nigel Lynn in "Feline Smugg " Hurricane 5.9 won the series.

The day was also last chance for "The Barking Challenge" attempts Sponsored by The Need For Speed of Colquhoun Street.None were tried and this Years winners are Gemma Frier and Colin Greer sailing a Laser 4000 in the Monohulls and Nigel Lynn sailing his Hurricane " Feline Dead Jammy" produced an all time record of 17mins 10 Secs in the multihulls .

What now ?. rc laser racing (Radio Control models) will kick off soon at Rhu with a fortnightly winter rc laser series sponsored by Rhu Marina and with 18 possible entries so far should prove very entertaining, whilst for the more intrepid HSC's popular winter race training courses are scheduled for many classes including Toppers and Lasers .