Medway RC Laser Winter Series event 8 at Barton Point Country Park Lake

RC Laser Winter Series event 8 at Medway © Jamie Blair

The wind from the south provided a wonderful opportunity to extend the course and have some longer races. The triangle sausage configuration put the windward mark at the point where the starboard lay line was difficult to see. Wind strength was in the range of the B rig.

13 racers crowded the pontoon to get the best view of the start line and with a practice start and a short course all was ready for the 10.00 start.

For Race 1 a small port bias could be seen on the start line that brought some of the fleet to the pin end. The side of the lake appeared quickly along with hails for "room to tack". The fleet behaved and almost in unison the whole fleet was on port tack towards the windward mark. Adrian Tomlinson (30) started in the middle of the line and led to the windward mark and wasn't challenged for the whole race. Returning from a few weeks off David Townshend (58) led the rest of the fleet to take second; Jamie Blair (51) and Tim Townsend (45) third and fourth.

Race 2 started with no bias so the fleet all took off from the starboard end. With this right shift the further up the beat those that tacked off early towards the right lay line found an even better lift on starboard. The wing mark gave a lengthy reach that saw boats bearing away at the windward mark to try and get the leeward lane and steal the overlap into the mark. The same applied for the leeward mark where the usual call for "Room". Adrian won, Tim second and Jamie third. The race between Tony Alexander (04) and Jon Moon (84) started to pick up with Tony ahead.

7 races were completed before the coffee break with Adrian stamping his authority on 6 of the seven races. Tim and Jamie ere on the same points but Pete Freeman (63) catching up fast after a slow start. Tony and Jon were still racing each other with Tony just in front.

Out from the break the breeze had clocked right and increased to 15 knots. The B rig was stored away and the C rig brought to the fore. A further five races were completed - the starts provided much scrabbling for position with close racing callings of "Windward boat" keep clear. Even Adrian got rolled and ended race 8 in ninth. Jon found a couple of third places but wasn't able to beat his rival (a 2 point difference) Roger Gibb (32) and Richard Stone (83) were swapping places through all the races with Richard coming out ahead. David T after his great first race result found the repeat difficult but still held out for a fifth place in race 12.

As usual the level of racing was top class and individual battles in every race. Some OCS to add to the flavour of the racing also gave Jamie and Tim and others some hard work to get a reasonable result. Brian Lev'y and Andrew Nicholls battle saw Andrew ahead.

We completed 12 long races before the 12.30 cut off. Adrian stormed it with nine wins and Pete jumped ahead of the chasing two Tim and Jamie. 12 races in a morning is a tall order for all, with those that sail regularly in RC Boats and Wayfarers, Dragons and cruisers showing that expertise gives results. That doesn't remove the perseverance of all the other racers who join us and we salute them.

The Winter Series is now half way through and Jamie is just holding on to his lead with Tim and Pete just 4 points behind on equal points.

Next for Round 8 - Sunday 2nd February. Details on www.rclaser.org.uk/events

Overall Results:

RC Laser Winter Series event 8 at Medway - photo © Jamie Blair