NeilPryde UK Laser National Championship at Largs Sailing Club - Day 4
by UKLA 14 Aug 2014 11:26 BST
9-15 August 2014
Life became much simpler for everyone today. The sun came out, look at the images if you don't believe me, the wind shifted slightly to the left (300 degs) and blew at a pleasant 15kts. All fleets went racing and completed two races each with only one boat called OCS during the day. PRO Ken had had a chat with the competitors at the morning briefing about the use of the 'Black Flag' after yesterday's numerous ejections. (I always want to put the words black flag in apostrophes and with capital letters). The course was laid to the north of Gt. Cumbrae and with the exception of one General Recall for the Standard fleet's second race it was great racing.
The Standard fleet has a new leader after today's two races. Anthony Parke took the morning race ahead of Scotland's Jack Aitken and Sam Whaley. Overnight leader Alistair Goodwin had his worst result so far in 12th place, now his discard. Alistair recovered well in the next race to finish 2nd behind Sam and ahead of Finn Murphy and Toby Woodings, whose 4th place was his best result so far. Sam has now moved into a 3 pt lead with Alistair and Jack tied on 27 pts apiece. After tomorrow's first race a 2nd discard will be allowed and the top of the table could be even tighter.
The trio at the top of the 4.7 fleet are very slowly pulling away from the rest, although Milo Gill-Taylor is hanging on to their coat tails with another good scoreline today. In the morning race all three took the top three places. Ireland's Nicole (Hemeryck) won from Arran (Holman) with Alex (King) 3rd and Milo was 4th. In the afternoon Ireland's Rory Fekkes put behind him some his earlier disappointments to take a very good win with Abbie Back also coming from the middle of the fleet to take 2nd ahead of Milo (3rd) & Alex (4th). Arran used his discard to get rid of his 15th place. Least said, soonest mended. However, Arran does have a 2 pt advantage over Nicole with Alex a further 3 pts adrift with four races and another discard to come.
Now the Radials have finished their Qualifying Series they will race the final two days in Gold & Silver fleets with the two fleets split evenly at 43 boats each. The discard allowances now get a little more complicated (Oh Vey!). Unlike the Standards and 4.7s who, after 9 races, can discard their worst two scores the Radials are allowed two discards but only ONE from the final series of four races. This has been known to have a significant effect in past championships.
In today's racing Jon Emmett and John Booth were both in Blue fleet whilst Jamie Calder, Ryan & Liam Glynn were in the Yellow fleet. John Booth took both winning guns in Blue with Jon Emmett coming 2nd in both. Behind this pair Oren Jacob & Tim Brow finished 3rd & 4th in the morning and 4th & 3rd in the afternoon. In the Yellow start Ryan (Glynn) recorded two 2nd places, Jamie (Calder) won the morning race and Liam (Glynn) took the gun in the afternoon.
The overall table now has the following seven helms in the best position:
1st Jon Emmett, 11pts
2nd John Booth, 13pts
3rd Ryan Glynn, 15pts
4th= Jamie Calder, Liam Glynn & Tim Brow, 20pts
7th Oren Jacob, 25pts
The Silver fleet is headed by Hamish Eckstein with the next seven places separated by only 17 pts, which is nothing in terms of overall position from hereon in.
Full results for each fleet can be found on the event website.