The Jimmy Lancaster Memorial Trophy was the final race of the weekend. It was sailed as a pennant race and the course took all sailors around the lake.
Although there was a south westerly wind in the Northern bay, the wind curved around the corner at Scarness to allow the boats to enjoy a broad reach with spinnakers for the next part of the leg. However, some wind sneaked over Sale Fell and swooped down vertically on to the course resulting in gusts coming from various directions at the same time.
Mike Moore and Ian Smith in a Flying 15, having secured several boat lengths lead by the windward mark, hugged the East shore to lead the Flying 15s into the second mark at the bottom of the lake closely followed by William Carruthers/Alan Smith and Ian Campbell/Tony Fisher. The vertical downdraughts started to take their toll after the fleet had manoeuvered across the lake to Mark 13 and started heading back up the lake. Although Neil Garrison in a Dart18 lead the fleet most of the time, the inconsistent wind prevented him from breaking clear away. William was the first to head back into the middle of the lake and took the lead F15 position. As Mike slipped back to 3rd behind Ian the other fleets faired well in the changeable airs.
There were a couple of casualties to the sudden gusts – John Sharp and granddaughter Kitty Hankins were the first to capsize; the second casualty was Ian Campbell who took on so much water that he had to go onto a reach to pick up speed but just seemed to take on more water!
Others suffered so much to the vagaries of the wind that they took a short cut to the finish (and missed out a couple of marks) – not good practice for the sailing secretary and his assistant sailing a GP!
First across the finish line was William, followed by Neil Garrison and Dave Lancaster who had sneaked past Mike at Scarness.
When the results were calculated on a personal handicap basis, Dave Lancaster was first, William was second (by 16 secs) and Robin Dawson third (by another 23 secs). So with Dave Lancaster winning the trophy awarded in his father’s memory it will be dubbed the Old Man’s Prize this year.
Overall results
JIMMY LANCASTER MEMORIAL TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 Pts
1 3503 D LANCASTER FF 1 1
2 3268 W CARRUTHERS F 2 2
3 13326 R DAWSON GP 3 3
4 13327 MiFAIRLAMB GP 4 4
5 3473 M MOORE FF 5 5
6 3521 P BURNELL FF 6 6
7 167828 I MACPHERSON LAS 7 7
8 12329 H GODFREY LAS 8 8
9 6642 J SHARP GP RTD 14
9 6905 N GARRISON D 18 RTD 14
9 169106 A SMITH LAS RTD 14
9 33434 S WATSON MIR RTD 14
9 3560 I CAMPBELL FF RTD 14
Points for RTD = 14
Points for DSQ = 14
Points for DNS = 14
1 race to count