Manor Park Sailing Club Spring Series - Day 8

Day 8 of the Manor Park Sailing Club Spring Series © Dave Higgins

Day 8 of the Manor Park Sailing Club Spring Series © Dave Higgins

Tight at the top

The penultimate weekend of the Manor Park SC Spring series opened under sunny skies and light wind - in complete contrast to the previous day when the MPSC Open day was held under the doom & gloom of black cloud, rain and big gusts! A baptism of fire for the hardy guests that turned up, but a lot of fun nonetheless.

Anyway, back to the racing... a nice F3-ish was in from the North as 14 crews took to the water for race one, whereupon the 5 minute warning bought about an instant drop in the wind to pretty much nothing, leaving those that had elected to test the first beat struggling to make it back to the line in time.

However, whilst spread over all parts of the line, the boats did all make it back safely to start with, unusually, none of the dramas of recent MPSC races!

To be fair, the race was fairly processional with the usual suspects all battling amongst themselves around the course - Dave Norris' Flying Fifteen in battle with Simon Beard in his RS400, Dave Court in his laser and Andy Meek & Jude in the big Stratosall heading the field. A midfield of Colin Reisner (GP14), Ian Macmillan (Laser), Ian Shaw (Merlin Rocket) and Greg Slater (Laser) were all in close contact with each other, with the tail end of the field providing a close battle between Lee Bratley (Lightning368), Roger Turford (GP14), Matt Vale (Laser), Chris Casson (Topaz), Lewis Shaw (Laser) and Bryan Westley (Enterprise).

The wind proved shifty and more than a little on/off - planing reaches turning into slow motion runs as the fleet turned the marks. Still, much fun and banter was being had - as well as a running aground incident for Matt Vale, who recovered impressvely during the race to achieve a great finish from dead last. Along five laps saw victory for Simon, with Norris a very close second and Meek shadowing well in third.

Race two saw no change in the wind, so a change of course was made to provide more variety around the lake. OOD Dave Higgins sent the boats on their way for another five laps of the Staffordshire water with a tactical approach rather than outright speed being the order of the day.

With Norris sitting this one out, it was Simon Beard - single handing the RS400 - who prevailed after a masterful display of light wind sailing. The handicap bandit that is the Topaz of Chris Casson made second place his own, with Ian Shaw taking third in his Merlin Rocket.

The only drama of the day was the capsize that befell Lewis Shaw as he gybed around a mark in the Lark he'd swapped to for this second race. Filling with water and no wind to provide speed for the bailers saw the young Shaw DNF this time around.

So, with Norris and Beard leading the way in the series, it all goes down to Sunday for the top slot as Dave Court heads the chasers as he attempts to retain his Spring series trophy.

Race 1 Results:

Race 2 Results: