Laser Midland Grand Prix Round 6 at Blithfield Sailing Club

Round 6 of the Laser Midland Grand Prix held at Blithfield Sailing Club really was a 'game of two halves'. Most of the fleet had seen the forecast for the wind to steadily build from around 12 to 18 knots as the day progressed but non of them expected what was to come. The first race varied between 8 and 12 knots enticing the previous week's winner at Swarkstone Andy Allan (Trimpley) to upgrade from his Radial to Standard rig. For race two the wind had built to a steady 14 knots. Similar conditions prevailed at the start of the final race but after the fleet had been sailing for around 30 minutes dark clouds loomed on the horizon and brought with them horizontal hail and extreme gusts (the club house anemometer read a peak of 50 knts) which wiped out most of the fleet.

In Race 1 Richard Pratt (Rutland) got a perfect start at the Committee boat end of the start line, he led at the windward mark and extended his lead throughout the race. The chasing pack consisted of Toby Woodings (Carsington), Ed Boulton King (RAF/Rutland) and Craig Williamson (Staunton Harold). Williamson pulled through to take a comfortable second place with Boulton King third. Rob Lennox (Barnt Green) extracted himself from mid fleet to take 4th place.

Race 2 took a different shape particularly with some large wind shifts. The beat turned very one sided and then swung back again, this time it was Jon Swain (Carsington) who was first to pick up a port shift and led at the windward mark. Repeating the trend from the first race he maintained his lead until the end of the race, again he was hotly pursued by Craig Williamson with a repeat of race 1 to finish second. Ed Boulton King took third for the second time despite finding his new boat's decks a bit slippy and capsizing on the last mark to beat Toby Woodings into 4th place.

Jon Swain, Richard Pratt, Craig Williamson and Ed Boulton King could have won the event going into the last race. After a 720 degree turn and on the start line and losing his mainsheet on the second beat Williamson could only watch from the sidelines as Swain sailed into the distance to win the event. Pratt looked to have easily secured second place until the extreme gusts came through and two Radials, Edward Higson (Bartley) and Alice Woodings (Carsington) found the conditions a bit more managable that the Standards. The three had a very close battle up the final beat, at the end Higson took second with Pratt third and Woodings 4th.

Overall this left Jon Swain first, Richard Pratt second, Craig Williamson 3rd, Ed Boulton King 4th, Edward Higson 5th and first radial and Toby Woodings 6th. Alice Woodings was first lady in 8th place, Rod Theaker (Staunton Harold) was the first Maser in 10th place, Paul Keeling (Blithifeld) the first home boatin 12th place and Jamie Cuxon was the first 4.7 in 19th place overall.

Round 7 takes place at Ogston on 2nd June, it is also the venue of the annual North vs Midland showdown with a trophy for the most successful region.

For further information on the Laser Midland Grand Prix see www.laser.org.uk and https://sites.google.com/site/uklasermidlandgrandprix2013/

Overall Results: