Laser Master Nationals at Paignton Sailing Club

by Glyn Purnell 6 Jul 2004 08:48 BST 2-4 July 2004

The 2004 event took place at Paignton SC over the extended weekend of 2 – 4 July and attracted an entry of 98 boats. The forecast for the three days indicated strong winds and this turned out to be the case for two days.

Racing started at 13:00 hrs on Friday in force 5- 6 W/SW wind. At times there was heavy rain, squalls reaching force 7 and sunny breaks. This gave some grueling beats, incredible reaches and breathtaking runs. All races started at the first attempt and with the wind coming off the land there were shifts to gain or lose places. Steve Cockerill finished the day in front with 5 points followed by Nick Harrison on 8 points and Alan Davis on 18 points.

The good point about Saturday was there was no rain and it remained bright for most of the day. However, the wind had increased slightly in strength but was constant with the same average direction as the day before. The first race of the day started without incident but the two subsequent races were subject to general recalls as the fleet pushed the start line. This resulted in a few sailors having a scenic tour of Torbay or an early shower.

At the end of the day, Cockerill had maintained his first position with 8 points. Davis and Harrison were on 13 points equal. Harrison was discarding a 9th place and Davis a 13th place. Local sailor Paul Proctor was consolidating his fourth position from winning the first race on Friday, with 20 points.

In the radial fleet Roberta Hartley had established a 5 point lead from Rick Plummer, by the end of Saturday, 27 entrants having deciding to use the rig.

Sunday turned out to be a complete contrast to the previous two days with no wind as the time of the first race approached. The fleet eventually went afloat just after 12:00 but it took three attempts to make a start in the oscillating easterly wind and then only just 10 minutes away from the 14:30 cut off. As the race progressed, the wind died off and it was with some difficulty that the last boats crossed the finishing line.

With 7 points Cockerill won the event in convincing style. Harrison and Davis both finished on 13 points. Each had one first, one second, two third and one fourth, places but Harrison’s next position was fifth while Davis’ was eleventh. This gave Harrison second place and Davis third.

Overall Results:

Apprentice
1st Steve Cockerill (Stokes Bay)
2nd Alan Davis (Oxford)
3rd Paul Procter (Paignton)
4th Johan Edberg (Queen Mary)

Master
1st Nick Harrison (Stokes Bay)
2nd Steve Birbeck (Paignton)
3rd Nick Livingstone (Oxford)
4th Mac Courts (Stokes Bay)

Grandmaster
1st Keith Wilkins (Chelmarsh)
2nd Kevin Pearson (Thames)
3rd Ian Rawet (Grafham)
4th Mike Kinnear (Starcross)

Great Grandmaster
1st Bill Watson (Blithfield)
2nd Ninian Eadie (Datchet)

Lady Radial
1st Roberta Hartley (Parkstone)

Radial
1st Roberta Hartley (Parkstone)
2nd Rick Plummer (Bowmoor)
3rd Glyn Purnell (Delph)

A special prize was awarded to Peter Raymer (Whitstable) for completing all races during the event, especially those on Friday and Saturday at the age of 76, obtaining an overall position of 65th.