Marlow Ropes New Year's Day Pursuit at Leigh and Lowton Sailing Club

Leigh and Lowton Marlow Ropes New Year's Day Pursuit © Gerard Van Den Hoek

Leigh and Lowton Marlow Ropes New Year's Day Pursuit © Gerard Van Den Hoek

A warm and dry day, much improved on those over the festive period, brought 47 boats from a mix of 18 classes to Leigh and Lowton for the annual Marlow Ropes New Year's Day Pursuit. There was plenty of time to catch up with friends and have a late breakfast or early lunch depending on how full on your New Year celebrations had been.

With a gentle north westerly breeze, race officer Gareth Williams set a course using the full length of the lake, and most of the buoys, to give a couple of good beats and a mix of off wind legs for what was a great day's sailing.

First off were the Optimists and Ben Welfare made the most of the breeze to lead the early starters. The breeze held as the other classes started, and the chase was on. Matt Sharman made good progress and pulled through to a significant lead in his Solo with Neil Marsden taking a firm grip of second place in his GP14. It was a close race for third, but in a dying breeze as the daylight started to fade, Ben Welfare successfully hung onto third place and was first Junior and first home boat. Close behind were Phil Barnes in another Solo and the RS400 of Chris Pickles and Mark Lunn.

After several hours on the water, the mulled wine after racing was appreciated by all the sailors.

The next event at Leigh and Lowton will be the Marlow Ropes Tipsy Series starting this Sunday 6th January and continuing every Sunday through to the middle of March.

See webcollect.org.uk/llsc/event/winter-2018-2019 for details.

Overall Results:

Leigh and Lowton Marlow Ropes New Year's Day Pursuit - photo © Mike Barnes