Bala Massacre Pursuit Race 2023 at Bala Sailing Club
by Gary Darch 29 Mar 2023 11:21 BST
26 March 2023
The first event of the year at Bala SC was well attended with fifteen entries with visitors from Bassenthwaite, Abersoch and Llangorse. The Race Officer Gary Darch set a long first lap on this beautiful long lake with a gentle force 2 to 3 NE breeze blowing on this fine spring day.
First away at 13.00 in this 3 hour pursuit race was the Laser Radial of John Haywood followed one minute later by the Solo of Miles Thomas. There were different strengths of wind in the one and a quarter hour start sequence with the RS400 and the Javelin having the best wind at their starts.
Leader at the end of the first lap was Miles Thomas in his Solo followed 30 seconds later by the Laser Radial, one hour for the first lap for these boats. Last boat to start one and quarter hours after the first boat was the NACRA F18 of Paul and Jude Allen with the wind strength force 3 and NE.
At 14.44 Dan Partington sailing his Vareo took the lead with the RS400 of Jon Heissig/Nicky Griffin making good ground along with Mike Allen and crew in the SB20. The NACRA F18 completed its first lap in only 22 minutes! With one hour to go the Vareo was still leading with the RS400 and Javelin both catching up, and the NACRA F18 starting to un-lap themselves.
Steve Pooley sailing his new F101 foiling trimaran was improving with some pace but with half an hour to go the wind dropped off to a force 1 to 2, at this point Andy Todd sailing his RS100 was making good ground on the group of leading boats. With 20 minutes to go the RS400 sailed past the Vareo and into the lead which they increased into a 3 minute gap at the race finish on 3 hours.
At the prize-giving Jon Heissig thanked Bala SC for putting on an excellent enjoyable event and said he will be returning for the Long Distance Weekend in June.
Results:
1. RS400 - Jon Heissig, Nicky Griffin - Llangorse SC
2. Vareo - Dan Partington - Bala SC
3. RS100 - Andy Todd - Bala SC
4. SB20 - Mike Allen, Richie Allen, Chris Basset - Bala SC
5. Javelin - Brian Dixon, Stuart Reid - SCYC