Laser Stratos Nationals at Whitstable Yacht Club

by Mike Beggs 18 Jul 2011 11:50 BST 16-17 July 2011

Flying Dutchman wins

The 2011 Laser Stratos Nationals were held on 16th & 17th July at Whitstable Yacht Club.

The Stratos Class Association had invited representatives of the Royal Netherlands Navy to attend, as they will be competing in Laser Stratos keels in a Defence Regatta to be held in Turkey in 2012. The Dutch Team of three and their Manager had chartered Stratos 69 from the Whitstable Sailing School. This was helmed by Timo Hagoort who flew in from coming 19th in the Finn Europeans.

Conditions on Saturday proved so extreme that the Race Officer cancelled the first race and postponed the second. Eventually after a 3 hour postponement 9 hardy competitors set sail in 20 knots and gusting, leaving several more on the beach to watch the fun.

Just as the start line was set a wind shift to the South offered a monster port bias, sending the competitors to the ODM. The Race Officer quickly recovered, moving the ODM to windward sending the competitors scurrying back to the Committee Boat end.

At the start Hagoort gained the windward berth covering Mike Beggs, 2009 Champion, as they sailed a long inshore starboard tack. This paid off with Hagoort first at the windward mark, a lead which he held to the finish.

With a strengthening wind, now over 25 kts, the second race started into a very lumpy sea. This favoured Nick Marden in his Stratos Keel who sailed away from the fleet, but Hagoort again sailed well inshore and put his Finn sailor weight advantage into a very narrow lead at the windward mark. As the leading boats rounded the mark, hoisted assymetrics, and flew towards the wing mark, a gust of 35 kts overtook them, causing most to be upended, including Hagoort. This gave Marden the lead, but as the gusts further increased even the keel was not enough and he was broached and laid flat for several minutes. Again Hagoort put his skill to advantage, recovering back into the lead followed by 2010 Champion Andy Meek making the best use of the conditions to come home second.

After a very social Saturday evening, the weather failed to deliver anything less than 33 kts on Sunday, so no further races could be held.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R2	R3	Pts
1	69	Timo Hagoort	Tom Werff	Royal Netherlands	1	1	2
2	161	Mike Beggs	Rob Stavenuiter	LTSC	2	4	6
3	1003	Nick Marden	Toby Marden	St Mawes SC	4	3	7
4	217	A Meek	Jacob Harding	Manor Park	6	2	8
5	273	Mike Rowe	Bill Shelvey	Slaughden SC	3	5	8
6	267	Richard Earland	Ingmar Bos	WYC	5	DNF	15
7	256	Derek Richards	Pete Wilson	Chelmarsh SC	7	DNF	17
8	1069	Martin Geale	Lynfel Owen	None	8	DNF	18
9	789	P Carter	S Carter	WCY	9	DNF	19