RC Laser Northern Autumn Series at Fleetwood - Day 2
by Tony Wilson 6 Nov 2017 14:31 GMT
5 November 2017
RC Laser Northern Autumn Series day 2 © Tony Wilson
Seven sailors registered with Liz for the sailing on the Sunday of bonfire night. A bit of an improvement to the usual replies she gets of just a couple. Maybe we were going to have a bumper day on this promise of blue skies and lots of wind.
There seemed to be squally showers right up to arrival to the club, and they were chilly as they contained the odd bit of sleet and hail.
The last Laser meeting was a very close fought battle, but on Sunday we had extra fire power from those that couldn't make the West Lancs event. In the end our only threat was from Shaun Holbeche, as Derek, John Sharman and Rob must have been sailing elsewhere.
The wind was coming directly from the North over our sand dunes, and was casting a severe wind shadow on that side of the lake. A figure of eight course of two laps was set and a start line at 90 degrees across the lake, which was a bit of an unusual one for the Laser gang.
Trevor soon had the attention of all ten skippers and rattled off six races in quick succession before lunch. As the last boat was recorded on the finish, before you could whip your boat out of the water for some needy adjustment, the start countdown was off again. We've never seen Trevor so on the ball and he wasn't for taking any prisoners.
Shaun was taking on the fleet single-handed and doing a good job of making sure he finished first, while others were mostly in irons over the far side in the windless area, Shaun must have been guiding his boat through with some sort of Jedi magical force or other.
Race 6 and Peter Isles was quick off the mark to change up to the B sail as the wind had just dropped a touch, leaving the rest of us all on C rigs. It paid off and he snatched a win from Shaun.
After lunch all came out with B sails connected and it was to continue in similar fashion as the morning. With the wind dropping all the while, it was again Peter to reach out for the bigger A sail. He seemed to be doing fine and hoping for another win but had to be happy with a fourth, as on the final leg he missed the last buoy which put him back a bit.
John Plant was the only other Skipper to sneak a first and looked dwarfed in the only B sail against the large low wind outfits, until he finally gave in and also went big on the final race.
Twelve races were had in the end and, being a joint race day, it was a shame to only see 3 outsiders non native to the Fleetwood club. A good day was had, but with very tricky trying conditions that some thought was a bit of a lottery to whether you would make it round in good time.
You will see from the results 3rd 4th and fifth place were all separated by just a point.
The next racing is at Burwain.
Results for the day:
1 Shaun Holbeche 10 pts
2 Skip Reaser 33 pts
3 Garry Benson 42 pts
4 John Plant 43 pts
5 Peter Isles 44 pts