RC Laser Northern Autumn Series at Burwain - Day 3
by Tony Wilson 13 Nov 2017 06:20 GMT
12 November 2017
The invite to the third Northern Lasers meet was this time over near Nelson on Lake Burwain. Eleven Skippers turned up on a bright, cloudless but chilly day. The wind was from the North, which meant we would be sailing from the other side of the lake by the boat compound.
John Sharman had done his thing with the rescue boat and made sure the buoys were all in the right place. The Burwain guys had already had a bit of a practise the previous week as the wind was coming from the same direction. The best thing is, you never get the sunny glare in your eyes, but it was cold.
John gave us the skippers briefing and it was to be the Olympic course, a triangle followed by sausage. Racing to commence at 10:30 and a brief pause for a respective 1 minute silence at 11:00.
Trevor was Race Officer for the day and was well stationed along the start line with the countdown auntie under way. The first race was won by Tony by a good margin followed by Hugo. Alan had rudder problems and disappeared for a short technical pause, but was back with us in a jiffy. A break was then called as we awaited the allotted time for remembrance.
Hugo decided to drop down a sail size as he just couldn't get his B sail to perform how he liked it. The rest remained with the B rigs and just weathered the occasional bashing as the wind gusts arrived.
Racing resumed and John picked up a couple of wins and so did Peter Isles, but Hugo was still having trouble.
The plan was to sail till about 1 O'clock or maybe 13:30 then have lunch. But by 12:00 and six races sailed, it was decided by all to return to the warm surrounds of the cabin and have early lunch as hands were starting to freeze.
Trevor did a midway count at lunch and it was John leading followed by Tony even when you included a discard and Peter was on their heels.
Back to the far side and it seemed like we had the same wind strength and direction to continue. Apart from Hugo trying out the C rig, only Tony and Peter decided to give it a try, but it was for only one race, you just didn't have the power.
Six more races were had in the afternoon to give a total of twelve and by a majority vote it was decided, early bath time.
It is a great place to sail and folks are invited down to join in on any of their club sailing days. RC Lasers are sailed every Sunday bar the odd full size dinghy race day, but are announced. Who would have thought that a small club like this has emerged from virtually nowhere and is now up to ten skippers in number and still growing. The best thing about sailing in freshwater like this is, there's no need to rinse of everything afterwards.
Day 3 Results: (top three)
1 John Sharman
2 Peter Isles
3 Tony Wilson
The next event is back over at Fleetwood. There are still two more events to be sailed and the winner could be anyone, as we've had 3 separate winners from each race day. Please keep an eye on the Fairhaven Lasers website.