RC Laser Northern Series at West Lancashire Yacht Club
by Tony Wilson 24 Oct 13:10 BST
13 October 2019
RC Laser Northern Series at Southport © Tony Wilson
Bringing everyone up to date in the world of RC Lasers, well not really as there's nothing new to report. After a fantastic Nationals event up at Fleetwood, we seem to have gone a little flat. Only four turned up at our latest sailing day up at West Lancs and this is a Northern District meeting, probably less had attended than the average club sail. Maybe the weather had the most to play in this affair as the forecast was pretty drab.
On to sailing and the light rain had started to ease as we were getting our boats ready. Skip had come along as race officer for the day and had he not forgotten his boat, then he could have joined in as Trevor was also with us and could help with scoring. By 10:15 we knew no others were going to join us and Colin had placed a couple of nice and easy lightweight buoys in the lake to Skip's liking for a descent course.
Off to a great and early day with a couple of one lap triangles in the light air racing begun. Only the big sail would be needed all day, but it was never going to get too light that we couldn't sail at all. Tony got off to a good start with Eric close on the heels. It remained like this for a couple of races, while Colin and Peter seemed to be struggling. The course was stretched to add a sausage for the rest of the lap to make the races a little longer and finish again on the start line.
A little chat to Skip for some sail adjustment advice and Peter soon had a bit more foot in his sail and was back up at the front. Colin's sail was also readjusted eventually for him to join in the duel. Two lines of thought on this as some of us leave our sails for race days let be and others say that the mast develops memory and remains or a little bend creeps in and so best to relieve the pressure. Now all boats were going pretty well, but Tony had kept in front and after six races it was time for a coffee break.
Continuing on a couple of races, then Eric mentioned he had never seen Trevor sail his Laser. Not one to tease, Trevor took the reigns of Tony's 711 and Skip opted to sail Colin's 733. They both led the next race for the best part and at least three quarters way round before letting Eric and Peter past to finish.
Another race and it started to look like the rain would return. The wind died off a little and we completed a couple more races to make twelve in total which was a good effort. We were packed up and ready for home before 2pm, but none were complaining. One, two, three for the Fleetwood boys.
The next event for RC lasers in the North is over at Fleetwood on the 3rd of November and likely to double up as a club event. There's also the last National TT down south at Gosport on the 26th October which is usually well attended and worth a visit.
Results:
1 Tony Wilson Fleetwood 13 pts
2 Peter Isles Fleetwood 19 pts
3 Eric Austwick Fleetwood 25 pts