Harken UK Laser National Championships - day 2 & 3

by Eddie Mays on 15 Aug 2007
Mark Powell (Hayling Island SC) and Max Holloway (Mudeford SC) were winners in the Standard Laser but it is Nick Thompson (Royal Lymington YC) who leads overall at the Harken Laser Championships.

In the Radial event Ben Paton (Royal Lymington YC) has a perfect scoreline with four victories and Steve Cockerill (Stokes Bay SC) has three wins and a second place to count. In the 4.7 Olly Porter (Royal Lymington YC) won ahead of Cameron Douglas (West Kirby) in the morning race and then Douglas won the afternoon race.

Full report:

On Monday the wind was blowing over the Chesil Bank from about 250 degs and at about 7 kts. This allowed the Race Officers to complete a full schedule of races. The 91 strong Standard fleet and the 49 Laser 4.7s were taken out into the Bay and the start line was laid under Osmington Mills, almost as far from the Sailing Academy as it is possible to go.

The trapezoidal course was set and racing got underway at 11:45. The black flag was used all day and it certainly cut down the number of boats that transgressed, although not completely.

In the first Standard start Ireland's Ben Lynch (Bessington) took a real flyer at the pin end of the line and crossed everyone by some way. He was pegged back up the first beat but finished a creditable 14th. With the tide setting clockwise round Weymouth bay most helms took the long port tack haul in towards the shore and in general it paid as the wind slowly backed towards 230 degs during the day.

Mark Powell (Hayling Island) took the winning gun, with Dyfig Mons (Red Wharf) ahead of Sunday's winner Nick Thompson (Royal Lymington YC). The first start of the 2nd race was subject to a General Recall and when the fleet did get away on the 2nd attempt Nick Thompson was one of a handful of boats that was black flagged. That was a shame as he led all the way round the course. However, as a discard is allowed with three races completed, he leads the overall table. Hampshire's Max Holloway (Mudeford) won from Royal Ulster's James Esprey and Dan Belben (Stokes Bay).

The 4.7 fleet showed good start line discipline and got away cleanly both times. Olly Porter, another Royal Lymington young blood, just won ahead of Cameron Douglas (West Kirby) with Rory Jones (Barnt Green) 3rd. Both the winner and the runner up had been black flagged yesterday and had obviously learnt their lesson.

Cameron then went one better and won the afternoon race with (yet again) Royal Lymington's Henry Lloyd-Williams 2nd and Cornwall's very consistent James Grant (Restronguet) 3rd. Cameron holds a narrow overnight lead but will have to be very careful with his starting technique.

The Radial fleet raced inside the harbour and UKLA Chairman & PRO Ken Falcon managed to fit in three races for all three flights, thereby getting slightly ahead of the game. After two days of racing Ben Paton (Royal Lymington) has a perfect scoreline with four victories. Steve Cockerill (Stokes Bay) has three wins and a 2nd place to count.

Jon Emmett (Weir Wood) has recovered from his neck injury, or is being incredibly brave, and counts four 2nd places. There are double victories for both Penny Clarke (Stokes Bay), top Lady, and David Jessop (Grafham Water). The qualifying stages of this fleet are due to end on Wednesday, leaving the last two days for the Gold, Silver & Bronze fleet races.

The gales that have been expected for the last few days have arrived at Weymouth and all racing has been abandoned for today. The prediction is that this weather system will have passed by tomorrow morning and racing is expected to be on as scheduled.

Laser standard - Leaders after 3 races (89 entries)

1 Nick Thompson Royal Lymington 1 3 BFD92 4pts
2 James Espey R Ulster 3 16 2 5
3 Robert Godwin Hayling Island 2 13 4 6
4 Mark Powell Hayling Island 8 1 6 7
5 Dan Belben Stokes Bay 11 5 3 8
6 George Cooper Stokes Bay 4 4 5 8
7 Max Holloway Mudeford 9 30 1 10
8 Greg Carey Royal Lymington 5 8 11 13
9 Evan Scott Grafham Water 6 7 9 13
10 Dyfig Mon Red Wharf Bay BFD92 2 14 16
11 Sean Evans British Steel 17 12 8 20
12 Stuart Godwin Hayling Island 10 23 10 20
13 Dan Ward Frensham Pond 15 6 15 21
14 Michael Sims Carsington 12 9 17 21
15 Dominic Breen-Turner Royal Anglesey 14 10 21 24
16 Ryan Seaton Ballyholme BFD92 19 7 26
17 Ronan Wallace WHBTC 20 18 12 30
18 Ben Lynch Blessington SC 18 14 50 32
19 James Gray Stokes Bay 23 11 BFD92 34
20 Phillip Reynolds Saltash 26 21 13 34

Laser Radial - Leaders after 4 races (142 entries)

1 Ben Paton R Lymington 1 1 1 1 4 pts
2 Stephen Cockerill Stokes Bay 1 2 1 1 5 pts
3 Jon Emmett Weir Wood 2 2 2 2 8 pts
4 David Jessop Grafham Water 1 1 5 2 9 pts
5 Penny Clark Stokes Bay 7 2 1 1 11 pts
6 Max Robinson Plymouth 4 1 4 4 13 pts
7 Martin Evans Dabchicks 2 7 2 3 14 pts
8 Jak Cornthwaite Elton 4 5 7 2 18 pts
9 Bob Cudmore Stokes Bay 3 8 4 4 19 pts
10 Tom Willis Downs 10 3 6 3 22 pts
11 James Spencer Mudeford 2 8 10 3 23 pts
12 David Carpenter Elton 3 12 6 5 26 pts
13 Gareth Henshall Port Dinorwic 9 8 5 6 28 pts
14 James Large Waveney & Oulton 3 4 8 14 29 pts
15 Simon Doran Courtown 13 7 3 6 29 pts
16 Martin Hayes Blithfield 10 7 3 9 29 pts
17 John Booth Weston 12 9 2 9 32 pts
18 Finbar Bradley Carlingford Lough 7 9 10 10 36 pts
19 Harriette Trumble Exeter Univ 5 15 13 4 37 pts
20 Michael Clark Warsash 14 4 8 11 37 pts

Laser 4.7 - Leaders after 3 races (51 entries)

1 James Grant Restronguet 4 4 3 11 pts
2 Aaron Smith Papercourt 6 7 5 18 pts
3 Rory Jones Barnt Green 9 3 9 21 pts
4 Sam Batten Lymington 2 8 16 26 pts
5 Daniel Wray Guernsey 3 10 13 26 pts
6 Matthew Deacon-Smith Warsash 10 9 12 31 pts
7 Lisa Marie Maskey Cushendall 13 16 4 33 pts
8 Joshua Irons Spinnaker 8 6 20 34 pts
9 Richard Keates Parkstone 1 29 14 44 pts
10 Liam Gardner West Kirby 5 18 22 45 pts
11 Johnathon McNamee Grafham Water 7 15 25 47 pts
12 Stephen Lloyd Oxford 11 25 15 51 pts
13 Cameron Douglas West Kirby BFD52 2 1 55 pts
14 Iain Horlock Exe 14 27 19 60 pts
15 Anna Carpenter Elton BFD52 5 7 64 pts
16 Henry Lloyd-Williams R Lymington BFD52 12 2 66 pts
17 Andrew Lis Royal Corinthian 20 11 39 70 pts
18 Josh Gosling Dabchicks 12 40 18 70 pts
19 James Page Salcombe 24 23 23 70 pts
20 Harvey Davies Restronguet 22 28 21 71 pts

Event website: http://www.wpnsa.org.uk/results.htm