Medway RC Laser Club Winter Series at Barton's Point Coastal Park - Day 10
by Jamie Blair 15 Mar 17:46 GMT
12 March 2023
Medway RC Laser Club Winter Series day 10 © Fiona Blair
Big waves for little boats!
Always with the wind in a WSW direction and on the puffy side the long fetch of the lake at Barton's Point Coastal Park provides some big waves to contend with. Near the café the rebound off the lake edge stimulates even more wave effect.
For the RC Laser this makes life difficult and exciting. Which sail to choose in 15 - 18 knots? Six racers took to the water with C rigs to race the triangle sausage course.
The start line had some port bias and encouraged the starboard tack boats down the line and out to the left of the beat. This was in to ore choppy water and the dread of trying to tack brought many a moment in irons or back on the same tack. The better option was to tack onto port as soon as and head for some shelter out to the right.
Adrian Tomlinson (30) back from a long lay off hadn't lost any of his speed, even in the rough conditions. Adrian dominated all the races before the break taking all 8 races.
Jamie Blair (51} and Jon Moon (84) tried to break his winning streak with port end fliers but fate intervened with missing marks (the wing mark was directly into the suns and some 50m away!), nose diving and boat interaction. Andrew Nicholls (613), Bob Woolford (76) and Tony Alexander (04) were having their own battles and with gear failure and DNFs adding to their score.
As the frequency of gusts above 18 knots the C rig was beginning to be uncontrollable. By race 8 the D rigs started to filter across the fleet.
By the coffee break Adrian had crafted a 6 point lead from Jon and Jamie a further 5 points on. Adrian continued his winning fest up to race 10 but with he wind now gusting over 20 knots his choice to stick with the C rig proved too much. Jamie took over the winning baton chasing a huge deficit between him and Jon, 6 points ahead.
For the last race (race 15) there was only a point separating the two. Adrian had already won the day. Jon led around the race course with both arriving at the last mark one behind the other. Jamie squeezed some extra height on the beat from the mark up the short beat to the finish.
Both boats were side by side with a narrow gap between the pair. It was only the last six feet that Jamie edged ahead and took the lead and the win by a very short nose.
Adrian led the results with a margin of 11 points. Second place went to Jamie after being calculated on countback.
Our next set of races will be on Sunday 19th March 2023.
Day 10 Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | R12 | R13 | R14 | R15 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | 30 | Adrian Tomlinson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ‑4 | 3 | 2 | ‑4 | 17 |
| 2nd | 51 | Jamie Blair | 3 | ‑4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 28 |
| 3rd | 84 | Jon Moon | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | ‑3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 28 |
| 4th | 4 | Tony Alexander | 4 | 5 | 4 | (DNF) | 5 | (DNF) | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 55 |
| 5th | 76 | Bob Woolford | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | ‑6 | 4 | (DNC) | 5 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 63 |
| 6th | 613 | Andrew Nicholls | (DNF) | (DNF) | DNC | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 5 | DNS | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 68 |