RC Laser Northern Series round 2 at West Lancashire Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 15 Oct 15:52 BST
14 October 2018
West Lancs RC Laser Northern Series round 2 ©
www.rclasers.com
One week on and we were into round two of the Northern series across the Ribble into Southport. No fun runs, no cycle races or airshows and noticeably no wind. Well if anything it looked like it was going to be a calm day.
A suitable course was set and just one lap of a skimmed down sausage pattern course was sailed, for just the seven skippers to test the waters. Race 2 had the wind pick up a tad and now onto the 'full fat' course of a triangle with spreader and two laps to see if we were up for it.
It worked, but became laboriously slow at times when the wind just left us. Some races would finish the full two laps and others were just shortened to one lap as the need arose.
Shaun Holbeche didn't really have any contenders: only the odd guy that got in his way. One race he cut short due to a mechanical or line sheeting problem, but miss one race when you're going good is no great loss when the field is yours.
We managed to squeeze in six races by lunch time which was fair enough being that the odd race sometimes lasted over half an hour. Being a bit unsure of time limits, it was decided that places were taken on the water 5 minutes after the first boat crossed the line.
It looked like the breeze was back on again and after lunch we presumed play in the hope that it may have improved. Some races went well and others either cut short or again places taken as was.
We thought we would finish early as the concentration was beginning to fade on the long races and then the wind picked up again for a final race. It was this final race that would decide the outcome on places four, five and six as there was just a few points in it. It was looking good for Peter and Eric until the wind faded on that last leg again. Alan came up the inside along the walk way to steal second place, were his boat got the wind from nobody knows and then Colin pipped Tony for a well deserved third also in that last race.
Ten races were had all day and we had even finished those last couple in glorious sunshine and stayed completely dry, while rumour had it that it was lashing it down just a few miles down the road towards Preston.
We had a reasonable day racing, but it would be nice to see a few more faces. Maybe they are saving themselves and their boats for the big event in a couple of weeks time down South. The RC Laser Nationals are said to have a good entry of at least 25 maybe 30 Skippers so far. Being also a joint TT weekend it is bound to be a great couple of days sailing down at Gosport.
The next racing in the Northern series will be over near Nelson on the Burwain sailing lake, no doubt there's going to be a good handful of local skippers also in attendance as they are said to be racing normally every Sunday anyway.
Thanks to Trevor for his scoring and Race Officer duties and also well done to Alan on his placing.
Results:
1. Shaun Holbeche, Fleetwood
2. Alan Tickle, West Lancs
3. Skip Reaser, West Lancs