RC Laser UK National Champiobnships at Barton's Point Country Park, Isle of Sheppey

I arrived on the Friday shortly followed by Tim Long. The wind was moving from SSE to SSW, and having a quick test sail on the lake for the best place to hold the racing, all we found was loose floating weed, possible dragged off the bottom by the Sea Cadets who were also using the water this weekend.

Saturday dawned to a lovely sunrise and steady breeze again from the South where it stayed with a little bit of movement. The weed had cleared the course with only a few instances when sailors ventured out the boundaries. Three sailors didn't show up, and I had to take over as OD, due to unexpected family issues for the booked OD.

With all the paperwork and mark laying done we got into the racing, simple windward with spreader and a leeward gate course. Shaun Holbeach opened his bullet account by taking the first race, but it wasn't until race 5, when he got back into his stride taking six more bullets out the nine remaining races of the day.

The quality of the competition was very hot with the other bullets, being shared between Tim Long x3, Tim Townsend x1 and Paul Woodward x1. With 13 races sailed in 'B' time was called.

Sunday opened with rain, and a slight wind shift, with the course rotated but under the same format, racing commenced in 'B' rigs with the appearance of the 'C' and some brave 'A's as the pressure built with the flooding tide and then dropped later in the afternoon.

The day belonged to Adrian Tomlinson four with consecutive bullets and Dave Adams with two bullets and constant string of top three places. Shaun claimed three bullets with a run of top four placings which helped him to keep his title of National Champion.

Unfortunately Tim Long who was in a solid second overall had a very bad day, apparently expressing that you couldn't even write a book about it!

A great weekend of sailing was held by every one that came. A big thank you to Jim La Roche who stepped in to be my assistant for the weekend, and to Fiona and Diane for doing all the paperwork, finishing etc. A big thanks goes out to design4408 for the video taken on day 1.

The full blow by blow race results will be on the website at www.rclaser.org.uk shortly.

Overall Results:

Mike Brand - best improver over the weekend
Andrew Nicholls - Persistence trophy
Peter Jackson - DOH!!! Trophy (does it really need explaining?)