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Laserfest Tri-Series Round 2 at Whitstable Yacht Club

by Steve Gray 20 Jul 2018 08:49 BST 14-15 July 2018

The second WYC Laserfest had a hard act to follow following its successful 2017 launch – and with the hard work from a raft of volunteers, some great weather and the enthusiasm of the 46 competitors, its safe to say it was job done!

To remind you, dear reader, Laserfest is a club level regatta for club sailors and friends first ran at WYC last year and was hosted by Herne Bay as the first in the Laserfest Tri-series in June. To encourage the mid-fleet, sailors are split into Elite and Clubmen with an inter-club competition at all levels established for 2018.

So onto the WYC 2018 event, and let me start with an apology to all of England – the Sunday start time was brought forward to 11.00 to allow competitors to watch the World Cup final BEFORE we had won the semi-final! Gareth Southgate was plainly shocked and selected Sterling and the rest as they say is history.

With committee boat starts on a fair line ran by our amazing PRO Mark Barnes and a lively F3/4 with a little F5 in the gusts legs were well stretched but the smiles were big following the downwinds and a tired fleet enjoyed two great races back-to-back. An innovation this year was to race to PY numbers giving the bandit radials a more than fair chance of the spoils (guess which rig your author used), so congrats must go to Aussie Jeff Loosemore who came all the way from Aussieland to win the first two races.

The other podium places were shared by Ollie Cage-White and Tom Goody (both super-fit youngsters from Broadstairs) and our own super-fit Charlie Campion (old enough to be their father and sadly working on the Sunday). Through the fleet battles were had at every level as the results reflect, perhaps none more hard fought that father and WYC Laser class captain 'Cap'n Mike' Oliver and son Tom.

There was a BBQ and band on the Saturday night and much fun was had by all as legs loosened to dance the night away – thanks SQA!

Sunday dawned with wall-to-wall sunshine and a light but building breeze, and nobody had even noticed that England lost the playoff!

The first race saw lighter winds, which whilst that held back the radials (Jeff was twelfth!), gave others a chance. Whitstable's light wind bandit 'Smokin' Chris' Jarrett dominated the race by a huge margin to win from Olly Cage-White with Tom Goody back in sixth leaving all to play for in the final race.

Another fair line and a shift to lift the pin end starters to the first mark once they'd tacked onto port saw Olly a clear first followed by a scramble of standard rigs and no sign of Aussie Jeff... All over you'd think, but Jeff put in a stellar performance to pull through the big rigs on the water as the wind strengthened to gain second on corrected time ahead of Tom Goody in third.

Behind Jeff, Olly and Tom came the radials of the Thomas brothers from Broadstairs and WYC sailor Max Hunt to round off the top six.

Age group prizes went to Canadian Niall Martin (36-45), Nigel Brown (46-55) and Christian Brewer (56-65) all from WYC – well done lads, Radials next year?

And from memory the team prize for Elite sailors went to Broadstairs A: Olly Cage-White and the Thomas brothers, and the Clubmen prize went to WYC C: resident Yank and marketing guru Paul 'PK' Kelly, 'Cap'n' Mike and 'Smokin Chris' Jarrett – well done all.

And lets have another mention to our wonderful volunteers, the shore team 'AKA', Mark's committee boat crew, the rescue team and all our visitors from Broadstairs, Herne Bay, Queen Mary and Thames – and visitors you were all trumped by those from Thailand, the US and of course Australia just for the event (and the odd graduation etc).

So, whose up for taking on the Broadstairs youngsters on their own turf in early Sept?

Overall Results:

PosSail NoTypeHelmClubHcapR1R2R3R4Pts
1207357LASER RADIALJeff LoosemoreWYC114211-1224
2213701LASEROliver Cage WhiteBroadstairs Sailing Club1098-42215
3198907LASERTom GoodyBroadstairs Sailing Club10983-66312
4193760LASER RADIALRichard ThomasBroadstairs Sailing Club1142-773414
5LR214300LASER RADIALMax HuntWYC114255-14616
6158363LASER RADIALChris ThomasBroadstairs Sailing Club1142-1088521
7212015LASERChristian BrewerWYC1098995-1023
8L210359LASERNigel BrownWYC1098810-17725
9L172568LASERAndrew JacksonWYC109814144(DNC)32
10208326LASERMark HolwegerWYC & SSA1098-17179935
11L197717LASERSteve GrayWYC1098-1511101435
12L196558LASERNiall MartinWYC1098-1613111135
13L191114LASERNick StephensWYC10981112-131336
14L185653LASERKevin HallWYC109813-16151240
15204653LASERLee GoodyBroadstairs Sailing Club10981215-161643
16L197150LASERCharles CampionWYC109824(DNC)DNC51
17167710LASER RADIALAbby ZambinskiWYC114222227-2751
18206504LASER RADIALRob CageThames Sailing Club114263(DNC)DNC54
19202316LASER 4.7Harry NewtonHampton12072119-241757
20L195226LASERChristopher JarrettWYC109828(DNC)12958
21L183125LASERPaul KellyWYC109820-21201858
22208996LASER 4.7Christopher MarshWYC120727(DNC)211563
23L208216LASERBill EdmondsonWYC1098-242322.51964.5
24198535LASERPeter GowingWYC109825(DNC)22.52168.5
25123897LASERMike HawlowBroadstairs Sailing Club1098-352718.52570.5
26211257LASERDavid CasaleQMSC109818(OCS)DSQ871
27198210LASERAndrew GuerinWYC1098(DNC)24272374
2842839LASEROlaf ThrondsenHerne Bay Sailing Club10982928-312077
29179746LASERMike Oliverwyc109823(DNC)292678
30173360LASERJonathan BentmanBroadstairs Sailing Club1098-3729262479
31L154760LASER RADIALTom OliverWYC1142-332632.52280.5
32206491LASER 4.7Imogen Cage WhiteBroadstairs Sailing Club12071918(DNC)DNC82
33L204549LASERTony ClementsWYC109834(DNC)18.53082.5
34120520LASERAli NicolsonWYC1098-3025302883
35LR115387LASER RADIALRuth OliverWYC11422620(DNC)DNC91
36193480LASERAndrew ProvanWYC10983230-343193
37184156LASERAlex WilsonWYC1098-383335.532100.5
38137939LASER RADIALVictoria PopeHerne Bay Sailing Club1142-403235.533100.5
39129888LASERJohn KellyWYC1098(DNC)DNC2834107
4096419LASERJohn GibbonsWYC109841(DNC)32.535108.5
41184334LASERKelvin TolsonWYC10983631(DNC)DNC112
42108888LASER 4.7Luke Hherlily 1207(DNC)DNC25DNC115
43192840LASERNick HawkinsWYC10983934(DNC)DNC118
44185966LASER RADIALNatalie Adamswyc114231(DNC)DNCDNC121

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