National and TT Results 2023
Laser TT held at Poole Radio Yacht Club on 12th August 2023
13 Laser helms came to this event with 4 being from other than the host club. They were greeted by sunny conditions but a gusty SW to SSW wind. The wind picked up a fair chop which the few who tried the D rig had difficulty in cutting through the waves. For most of the time the fleet settled for the C rig and hoped to survive the occasional wipe out in the gusts. This did result in a fair bit of rudder waving in the air with the chance of totally rounding up ever present. The course was changed a couple of times due to the changing wind direction but made easy for the helms by using the same lettered buoys throughout.
Shaun Holbeche showed his mastery of the conditions from the start with 12 first places from the 21 races giving him 30 points overall. Lawrie Draper was the highest placed local, managing 5 first places and 41 points overall to finish second.
Within the rest of the fleet there were many changes of fortune. Surprisingly there were very few breakages and they were minor with only two helms suffering from electrical/radio problems.
Very tired sailors gathered for the prize giving when the organiser and catering staff were thanked by the visitors before they departed clutching their prizes for the day.
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Medway Nationals 2022
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I arrived on the Friday shortly followed by Tim Long. The wind was moving from SSE to SSW, having a quick test sail on the lake for the best place to hold the racing, all we found was loose floating weed, possible dragged of the bottom by the Sea Cadets who were also using the water this weekend.
Sat dawned to a lovely sunrise and steady breeze again from the South where is stayed with a little bit move movement. The weed had cleared the course with only a few instances when sailors ventured out the boundaries. 3 Sailors didn’t show up, and the 4th , myself had to take over as OD, due to unexpected family issues for the booked OD.
With all the paperwork and mark laying done we got into the racing, simple Windward with spreader and a leeward gate course. Shaun Holbeach opened his bullet account by taking the first race, but it wasn’t until race 5, when he got back into his stride taking 6 more bullets out the 9 remaining races of the day. The quality of the competition was very hot with the other bullets, being shared between Tim Long x 3, Tim Townsend x1 and Paul Woodward x1. With 13 races sailed in ‘B’ time was called.
Sunday opened with Rain, and a slight wind shift, with the course rotated but under the same format, racing commenced in ‘B’ rigs with the appearance of the ‘C’ & some brave ‘A’’s as the pressure built with the flooding tide and then dropped later in the afternoon. The day belonged to Adrian Tomlinson 4 with consecutive bullets & Dave Adams with 2 bullets and constant string of top 3 places. Shaun claimed 3 bullets with a run of top 4 placings which helped him to keep his title of National Champion.
Unfortunately Tim Long who was in a solid 2 overall had a very bad day, apparently expressing that you couldn’t even write a book about it!!.
A great weekend of sailing was held by every one that came. A big thank you to Jim La Roche who stepped in to be my assistant for the weekend, and to Fiona & Diane for doing all the paperwork, finishing etc.
Full results are below, we had 3 special prises presented to
Mike Brand, best improver, over the weekend.
Andrew Nicholls, Persistence trophy.
Peter Jackson, DOH!!! Trophy, well does it really need explaining 😊 (ok most 360 turns done)
Dave Fowler.
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Video link
A big thanks goes out to design4408 for the video taken on day 1.
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Fleetwood National Championship 2021
