RC Laser & Dragon Force event 5 at West Lancashire Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 29 Feb 2016 18:28 GMT
28 February 2016
RC Laser & Dragon Force racing at West Lancs © Tony Wilson
We had a really good turnout with 24 skippers at West Lancs for the fifth event. A 50/50 split of 12 sailing in each class shows you how popular both of these budget boats are. A and B rigs would dominate the day for the Lasers, while the Dragoneers tend to cope well enough with just their A sail set.
Tony surprised not only himself but a few others when he'd been sailing the first three races with his keel back to front. He's not the only one to have ever done this, as one can be easily distracted at the beginning of the daily proceedings.
Two clockwise circuits of a skinny triangle was the format for the whole day. It was a good compromise for trying to keep the direct sunlight out of your eyes while still being able to make optimum use of the wind direction.
Ten races were held leading up to lunch, with Dave Fowler in his usual top form for the Lasers and John Tushingham wasn't giving much away in the Dragon class either.
Just as the wind started to pick up and threaten the emergence of C rigs, the midday break was called. In went the sun and all was looking well.
The afternoon started again and it was A sails back on. A further six races were sailed with Dave and John only giving away an occasional first place. Only three skippers posted a win in each of the prospective classes.
Sixteen races gave us all the 3 discards some had hopefully wished for.
Event 5 Results: (top three)
RC Lasers
1 Dave Fowler
2 Skip Reaser
3 Jordan Porter
Dragon Force RG65
1 John Tushingham
2 Tim Long
3 John Brierley
Next event at Southport, the last in the current series, on 13th March 2016.