Big Breeze for the Laser Trials
The first two races of the Laser Trials were sailed in testing conditions today at Ramsey. MSRs very own Dave Kneale was there to capture the action. A
range of pics are on the gallery and the results are on the results page.
Full write up courtesy of Jerry Coleman
We arrived on the prom at 0930 to be faced with a good F7 westerly in the Bay probably gusting 8 so there was a good deal of discussion before the Race Officer announced a delay. After a couple of violent squalls and showers, the wind seemed to abate so a course was set and 8 Lasers (some rather reluctantly) set off for the start line in the North Bay area. The first windward leeward race started at 1137 in W 6/7. It was somewhat disrupted by a 15 degree shift at 1137 :10s but the beat remained a beat and some were glad that the run was not quite square. Gybes, gusts and bear-aways initiated a succession of capsizes. John Cowell retired during the first lap with a broken toestrap and Ali Hinds, toughing it out in a radial rather than her more familiar 4.7 rig, suffered a succession of capsizes on the second lap and retired basically blown out.
Peter Whipp took the shortened first race by a fine margin on the water in his radial with Mike Pridham just behind in a standard. All the others capsized at some time during the race, but there was considerable fightback in evidence right to the back of the fleet. Shaun Hopkins looked impressive after a few years in lead mines taking third and it was multiple capsize misery for Phil Hardisty, Dave Holland and Mark Broderick who lost valuable seconds swimming around in the oggin.Thanks to Dave Holland for jumping in to assist one of the capsized boats.
The course was moved to accommodate the shift and a fleet of 6 started the second race, lead off by Whipp who again did not capsize and was never headed. Phil Hardisty stuck as close as he could but was unable to make up time. Mike Pridham found that undoing knots in the mainsheet while on the run was too demanding and thereby lost a chance of catching Hardisty and while John Cowell returned after fixing his toestrap he was still on the learning curve of coping with the conditions. Shaun came in another couple of capsizes later in 5th, having been second for a while, with a somewhat knackered looking Dave Holland tying up the fleet. By the end of the three laps, the OOD decided they had been given enough and finished the day’s racing. There were no complaints.
There was some spectacular racing as you can see from David’s pictures and all who took part on the water knew they’d been sailing. Thanks to the OOD’s assistant Katie Dean and to rescue boat crews Donald Edwards, Yogi, Derek and David.