Laser South East and South Coast Grand Prix at Lancing Sailing Club

Thirty-four Lasers from London, Kent, Hampshire, East and West Sussex, took to the water at Lancing on a beautiful June day with medium/light winds and the possibility of a sea breeze.

Race Officer Peter Matthews had a shifty offshore North Easterly to contend with, but set a course that stayed fairly true for the first two races and made use of the best conditions of the day.

The two fleets, 20 standards and 14 radials, got away first time in race 1 and it soon became clear that in the standards, the contingent from Queen Mary SC weren't just here to sightsee. Tony Woods had excellent speed, read the shifts well, and held off Michael Hicks and Mark Little, (all QMSC), to take the win. Woods repeated his winning form in race 2, but Lancing SC sailor Will Apps spoiled the QMSC party by taking 2nd with Little again 3rd.

In the radial fleet, David Trout (Lancing SC) led for the first 2 laps but was passed by Ben Elvin (Stokes Bay SC) and Andrew Byrne (King George SC) to finish in that order. In race 2 Elvin and Trout had a very close race to the finish, with Elvin finding a little extra on the final run to take a second win.

At this point, the wind gods had obviously got bored and decided to throw in a 180 degree shift. Fortunately, the Lancing race team got the course rearranged pretty quickly and both fleets got away into a light, shifty SSE breeze.

In the standards, the QMSC team were at it again, but Mark Little played the shifts better than his colleagues to take the win and give him 2nd place overall. Tony Woods came in 2nd but had already sealed the overall 1st. Chris Ellyat (QMSC) had his best result of the day in 3rd.

Rob Cage (Thames SC) found good form in the radial fleet to lead for most of this 3rd race, but lost out to Ben Elvin near the finish. Andrew Byrne's 3rd was enough to take 2nd overall ahead of David Trout.

Overall Results: