A bit of balmy weather this weekend. Loads of sunshine, but the wind was somewhat lacking on Saturday. In the first race Shunty, with Tim Chittenden crewing, kept breaking away and then being caught again. On the final run before beating up to the finish Herb warned Steve to mind the anchor warp – Tim lifted the centreboard, but the warp caught on his rudder bringing him to a sudden stop, sufficient enough for William and Elaine to take the lead. On handicap though, Dave and Lynn Lawson took the honours in their GP.
The second race had even less wind and less partakers, and again the honours went to Dave and Lynn.
Sunday started with the lake like a mirror, but the wind started to fill in just after 1130 allowing the racing to get underway before lunch. Scumper was a bit too eager, and responded with an innocent ‘was that me?’ when he heard the second recall signal. After returning through the line, he had a good beat to be third behind Shunty and John Halliday at the windward mark, and eventually broke through to second.
Mike Fairlamb had a good race and stayed ahead of Dave Lawson until he headed for the wrong mark (could it be an age thing?).
The sea breeze topped up the wind strength in the afternoon, and resulted in a couple of capsizes. Toggle survived the gusts on the first reach to 3, but not the second time around! This slowed him just enough for Mik Chappel to beat him on handicap. The wind suited the RS400s with Shunty and Scumper coming in ahead of Mike Moore.
Mike Fairlamb led the way ahead of Dave Lawson until the final beat to the finish when Dave broke through (Could be that age thing again!?). Special mention for Bridget and Ginge who sailed two races in one day – some time since that happened!
Just see what you’ve been missing out on – come down and make the most of this Summer weather as you never know how long it will last
Easter Series
After a gentle breeze on Saturday, Sunday proved to be a lot more challenging. The handicap fleet was expanded by the full compliment of RS200s, and they all had some close racing and several capsizes. Robbie D was again involved in the capsize of one of his competitors (the Hardies), although this time he didn’t try to skewer them!
The wind picked up in the afternoon, leading to more capsizes – the RS200s all had their fair share, but Paul Burnell and Sam Hall were the only RS400 to go in (x3 or was it x4?). Shunty retired when his kicker broke just as he was having another close race with Scumper and Andy T. Neil and Judith hung on in (almost literally) to keep ahead of William and Toggle who had pipped them at the post in the morning race.
It was good to have four F15s on the water – Scott seemed to be struggling with the first beats but soon got back into the pace to win both races. Dave and Lynn Lawson sailed well again to take both races, but why Lynn ended up hanging on to the bow as they came ashore we may never know!
The traditional Easter egg dump was held on Sunday after racing, and it was quite fitting that the winner was Jack Lawson, grandson of the original organiser of the competition, Jack Lawson, who sadly died last year.
Another breezy day saw a change in crews for some so that they could make the most of the conditions. The Hardies again had to clean the lake mud from their mast head after another capsize. But racing was good even though the same names appeared on the leader board – Scott, Dave and Tim – all of whom have won their respective series with three straight wins. In the handicap fleet, Bean and Naomi in an RS200 worked there way up to get 2nd on handicap pushing Shunty down to 3rd position. As Scumper had two firsts and a second, Shunty couldn’t match this even by taking the last race, so the series went to Scumper and Andy T/Zefer.
The wind eased a little for the final afternoon race, but there was still some good gusts to create exciting planing conditions at times.
All in all a busy bank holiday weekend, with good racing and reasonable, dry, weather.
Rich Critchley’s been doing some happy snapping again, and here’s a couple to whet your appetite. The rest can be found here in the Easter 07 directory
F.F. EASTERLY TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 3673 S BEATTIE FF 1 1 1 DNS 3
2 3293 I PRESTON FF 3 2 2 2 6
3 3473 M MOORE FF 2 3 3 3 8
4 2504 K THOMAS FF 4 RTD 4 4 12
5 93673 J SOMERVILLE FF DNS DNS DNS 1 13
Points for RTD = 5 5 5 5
Points for DSQ = 5 5 5 5
Points for DNS = 6
3 races to count
HANDICAP EASTER TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 1049 M SOMERVILLE RS400 2 1 1 2 4
2 1298 S HUNT RS400 1 RTD 3 1 5
3 1303 W CARRUTHERS RS400 3 3 4 3 9
4 1148 N CURRIE RS400 4 2 5 4 10
5 691 P SMITH RS200 7 5 2 6 13
6 1003 A SMITH RS200 RTD 4 6 5 15
7 913 JoHARDIE RS200 9 RTD 7 7 23
8 379 R DAWSON RS200 6 RTD RTD 8 24
9 1140 J CHRISTIE VORTEX 5 6 DNS DNS 28
10 13259 J ROBERTS VAREO 8 RTD DNS DNS 38
11 501 J CROSBIE RS400 DNS 7 DNS DNS 41
12 130579 S HALL LASER RADI DNS DNS 8 DNS 42
13 3275 B LANCASTER N12 DNS DNS DNS 9 43
14 173813 P BURNELL LAS DNS RTD DNS DNS 46
15 174889 S HALL LAS RTD DNS DNS DNS 47
Points for RTD = 13 12 10 10
Points for DSQ = 13 12 10 10
Points for DNS = 16
3 races to count
G.P. BASS TANKARD
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 4 Pts
1 13176 D LAWSON GP 1 1 1 1 3
2 13885 M FAIRLAMB GP 2 2 2 2 6
3 13161 S SPENCE RSFEVA 3 3 4 DNS 10
4 13867 D NICHOLSON GP OD DNS 3 DNS 11
Points for RTD = 4 4 5 3
Points for DSQ = 4 4 5 3
Points for DNS = 5
3 races to count
MIRROR IMAGE TROPHY
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 3 Pts
1 70142 T SMITH MS 1 1 1 2
2 69960 M CHAPPEL MIR 2 2 2 4
3 70466 D TODHUNTER MS 3 3 3 6
Points for RTD = 4 4 4
Points for DSQ = 4 4 4
Points for DNS = 4
2 races to count
Easter Fun and Games
First of all there was the merry go rounds – both the Commodore and his Vice had a go on this one. In the first race, the Celebrity Glass pursuit, Dave Nicholson decided to do some turns after hitting Eric Smith on the head (with his boom!). In the second race Steve Hunt did a couple of pirouettes for Scumper after hitting him as they rounded the mark.
Secondly, there was the jousting competition (or it may have been cooking related) which took place later in the same race. In this one Robbie D, reaching with the gennaker up, failed to skewer Alan Nicholson (fortunately) but Alan was knocked out of his Vareo as he was beating up a separate leg of the course. Apart from a bent pole, and no doubt a big bruise, no real harm was done. Both boats capsized as a result – not to take the glory from Roy who regularly gets a mention for capsizing (even when he hasn’t capsized, or so he claims), but he wasn’t sailing!