Laser Grand Prix at Alton Water Sports Centre

by Gavin Johnson 18 Mar 2011 10:12 GMT 13 March 2011

With 29 entries and a South-westerly wind of a fluctuating 10 to 14 knots three races were held over a trapezoidal course. The sun tried but generally failed to break through but this didn't detract from the racing.

With a different winner in each race the final points spread for the top six three Standard rig boats was a mere five points. Race three was particularly enthralling as Graham Lund and Veronica Falat traded places with Veronica coming out the victor by a small margin on the final lap.

Positions throughout the fleet were settled by the narrowest of margins all the way through the fleet, never more so than by Hobie Wright in the first race when in a desperate attempt to finish ahead of his nearest rival he roll tacked a little too far and went for a very cold swim a tenth of second after finishing. With the wind strength as it was the fleets separated out naturally into Standard Laser, Radial and 4.7 but, the action was intense from back to front of the fleet.

The great strength of this series is the diversity of the protagonists with all ages represented and competitors travelling from all over the region from as far afield as Aldenham near Watford and Snettisham in Northwest Norfolk we even had a Swedish entry from Grafham.

Overall Results:

Pos	Helm	Sail No	Club	Rig	R1	R2	R3	Pts
1	Graham Lund	197778	ALDENHAM SC	Standard	1	3	2	3
2	Gary Pilgrim	18413	BRIGHTLINGSEA	Standard	11	1	3	4
3	Veronica Falat	178382	WAVENEY & OULTON BROAD	Standard	7	6	1	7
4	Steve Dunn	17057		Standard	5	2	5	7
5	Matt Hart	185326	SHOTLEY SC	Standard	3	4	7	7
6	Jasper Barnham	189084	SNETTISHAM BEACH	Standard	4	5	4	8
7	Graham Ireland	183200	RHYC	Standard	2	8	9	10
8	Chris Woodward	195059	WALDRINGFIELD	Standard	6	12	6	12
9	David Copp	195044	WALDRINGFIELD	Standard	DNF	7	8	15
10	David Reason	135820	HARWICH TOWN SC	Standard	9	10	12	19
11	Michael Cullum	159392	HICKLING BROAD SC	Standard	10	11	10	20
12	Adrian Degge	186246	HBSC	Standard	12	9	11	20
13	Toby Ramsay	147056	DABCHICKS	Standard	8	14	14	22
14	P Richardson	185648		Standard	13	16	13	26
15	Martin Mills	198961	HUNTS SC	Standard	14	13	19	27
16	John Heath	1340340	AWSC	Standard	19	15	16	31
17	Rob Shuff	163149	AWSC	Standard	16	21	15	31
18	Matthew Aldous-Horne	195064	AWSC	Radial	15	25	17	32
19	Robert Moritz	RHS3	AWSC	Standard	18	22	18	36
20	Nikola Grujic	RHS5	AWSC	Radial	20	17	21	37
21	James Head	167598	AWSC	Radial	17	23	24	40
22	Jana Bratusa	RHS8	AWSC	Radial	DNF	19	22	41
23	Hobie Wright	188816	AWSC	Radial	21	24	23	44
24	Matthew French	199493	AWSC	Radial	DNF	26	20	46
25	Anders Barreng	178443	GRAFHAM WATER SC	Standard	DNF	18	DNF	47
26	Petter Barreng	176320	GRAFHAM WATER SC	4.7	22	27	25	47
27	Oli Harris	117300	AWSC	Standard	DNF	20	OCS	49
28	Alex Berry	174572	AWSC	4.7	23	29	27	50
29	Joeseph Philo Powell	184130	DABCHICKS SC	4.7	24	28	26	50