Laser 2000 Millennium Series Event 2 at Grafham Water Sailing Club

2000s at Grafham © Richard Janulewicz / www.fotoboat.com

Laser 2000s at Grafham © Richard Janulewicz / www.fotoboat.com

Laser 2000s at Grafham © Richard Janulewicz / www.fotoboat.com

Last weekend saw the second event in the Laser 2000 Millennium Series held at Grafham Water Sailing Club. The forecast for the weekend was almost unbelievably perfect – hot, sunny and windy. And it all turned out to be true.

The event attracted a high number of entrants with 30 boats sailing the event – including nine boats from GWSC.

Saturday morning brought a force 3–4 north-easterly breeze and air temperatures in the mid 20s. The race officer, Neil Cooney, warned everyone in the briefing that as the conditions were so good he was going to make the races on the long side. He kept his word: with a beat length of about 1km and the number of laps set to five, each race was about 70 minutes long.

The first race saw almost the entire fleet head for the wrong windward mark on the first lap, the leading boat (whose anonymity we will preserve!) only realising after they had rounded the mark and raised their gennaker. There then followed a drag race down to the correct mark. The race eventually saw Jasper and Laura Barnham from Snettisham Beach SC (sailing a brand new boat loaned to the Class Association for the season by LaserPerformance) take the win with Matt and Clare Sargent from the Army Sailing Association come in second. In third were Chris and Gill Jordan of Burghfield Sailing Club.

The second race on Saturday was the only race with boats OCS. Four boats were too keen to get away and two did not return. The race was won by the Barnhams again, with Graham Sexton and Kristina Harborne from Thorpe Bay Yacht Club in second place. In third were Chris and Tom Hall from Snettisham.

The third race saw Graham and Kristina take the win with Jasper and Laura getting a second. In third this time were Dave Adams and Wendy Cox from Broadstairs SC.

Everyone then headed for the club and collapsed in the bar for the evening; after a mammoth day's racing, the good food and plentiful beer on offer were well deserved and appreciated. And the acoustically perfect duo of Sophie and Hadleigh were ideal entertainment, especially for those simply too tired to chat!

Sunday morning brought very similar conditions to Saturday. The wind was still from the north-east, but had dropped to a force 2–3 and there were clearly some large holes in the wind showing on the water.

The first race saw very shifty and light conditions, but with some nice channels and lifts available if you could find them. The race was shortened as the wind shifted during the race and the course became very one-sided. So for the first and only time in the weekend, Neil only asked the fleet to sail for 45 minutes! Graham and Kristina won the race with Jasper and Laura in second. Third were Iain and Sarah Yardley from Leigh and Lowton SC. This put Graham and Kristina on the same points as Jasper and Laura and made things quite tense in those two boats for the next race.

Neil Cooney and his team of mark layers then quickly move the course around to deal with the shifted wind and started the second race after a short delay. The wind had increased a little and shifted round to the east more, but there were still some very big shifts to benefit from. Jasper and Laura managed to get back into their winning ways in this race with Graham and Kristina in second and Dave and Wendy in third.

For the third race the wind had come right round to the east and increased and the course needed moving again. This was done efficiently and the race started with no one over, despite the wind shifting heavily during the preparatory period and the line becoming heavily biased to the pin – so much so that some boats found they could not cross the line on starboard, but could not tack because of boats above them. Jasper and Laura needed to beat Graham and Kristina in this race to win the event, and made absolutely sure by winning the race. Graham and Kristina came in second with Matt and Clare Sargent in third.

Although all the races were long, the racing was very competitive throughout and at the end of every race five or six boats at a time would be vying for places even on the final reach to the finish line. One mistake at any point in the race often meant dropping five or more places.

Thanks are due to LaserPerformance for the supporting the class (their boat certainly performed!), to Noble Marine for supporting the youth entries, to Fotoboat, who captured the wonderful conditions on camera, and to our other Class Association supporters; Purple Marine, Hyde Sails and SailLaser.

Overall Results: