It was bright sunny skies that enticed 20 boats out on to Bassenthwaite Lake on Saturday afternoon for the third weekend of the season. It was a splendid sight with boats sailing in five different fleets even if the wind was a little fickle causing some problems for the official starter Herb Telford.
With some members undertaking race training during the morning they were very keen to put their new skills into practise. Scott Beattie and John Somerville led the Flying Fifteen fleet, but it was close racing all afternoon, and in the second race the three lead boats finished within one minute.
The GP14 fleet is proving very strong this year with several new boats purchased over winter and a new team of Phil Smith and Mike Cowan very keen to do well, this season could be very close. With close racing and the lead changing hands it was John Telford and Phil Hodgkins both not sailing with their normal team, who won both races during the afternoon. It was very pleasing to see the mirror fleet making a come back with several younger sailors. First in the mirror fleet were Alistair Fletcher with his daughter Eleri, 2nd was Nick Wood and his son Ben, followed by Derek Poulton and his daughter Jenny. The Handicap fleet saw many new boats joining the fleet with Steve Hunt and his son crossing the line first in both races. Tim Knowles launched his RS300 and had a very good race for the first sail in a new boat.
Sunday saw a very different day with lots of clouds and dizzy, but even if the wind was light and patchy it did not discourage 12 boats to launch to compete for the Jimmy Lancaster Memorial Trophy. The day ‘s racing was enjoyed by all the sailors with the winning margin was very close. The overall winner was John Telford and Phil Hodgkins in a GP14. With such a good start to the season both in terms of weather and numbers of boats all the sailors at the club can look forward to great season.
JIMMY LANCASTER MEMORIAL TROPHY 2002
PN Boat Helm Class 1 2 Pts
1 13741 J TELFORD GP 1 1 2
2 3673 S BEATTIE FF 3 3 6
3 1049 S HUNT RS400 5 2 7
4 13331 P SMITH GP 2 6 8
5 3473 M MOORE FF 4 4 8
6 3332 W SOMERVILLE FF 6 5 11
7 161866 M SOMERVILLE LAS 7 7 14
8 93385 J HARDON FF 10 8 18
9 501 N CURRIE RS400 9 9 18
10 91223 TBA LAS 8 RTD 21
11 6905 N GARRISON D 18 11 11 22
12 1180 R YARDLEY VORTEX DNS 10 23
Points for RTD = 12 13
Points for DSQ = 12 13
Points for DNS = 13
2 races to count