UK National and Open Laser Championships to date

by UK Laser Class Association on 2 Sep 2011 The UK National and Open Laser Championships are underway at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy and continue until 2nd September.

Day 4 report

With two ‘lost’ races from Tuesday to make up the Race Officers were very pleased to find a healthy 10 kt ENE’ly breeze blowing early this morning. Through the day the wind shifted slowly towards the East and built to 15 kts by the end of the racing period.

All three fleets raced in the Bay but the Laser 4.7s were again racing from their own Committee boat. The saving in time that this produced was enough to allow all the fleets to complete three races. The change in wind direction also meant that what tide there was kept the boats away from the line. This enabled the main race team to use the ‘I’ flag for all the starts with only a handful of boats being adjudged OCS. Much better!

In the Standard fleet the Dutch team are proving they are more than a match for the home sailors. In Race 1 Sierk Jan Ter Haar recorded his first win of the week. European Youth Champion Alex Mills-Barton took the middle race but Rutger van Schaardenburg again impressed by taking the final win of the day. This leaves a Dutch trio still at the top and Jack Wetherell in fourth.

It was a difficult day for the scorers in the Radial fleet but when the dust had settled the fleet was split into Gold & Silver fleets for the remainder of the regatta. On the water Evi Van-Acker won the first two races in her flight before Hannah Snellgrove took her second win of the week. Jon Emmett again sailed consistently to have a 2, 3, 2 scoreline. In the other flight British Youth sailor Dan Bullock came out of the pack to take the first gun of the day before Czech Veronica Fenclova won the next two races. Going into the final two days Veronica heads the leaderboard from Evi & Jeroen Belis with Jon Emmett and Andrea Brewster completing the top five.

Dutch Junior sailor Benjamin Wempe had an outstanding day in the Laser 4.7 fleet winning all three races to make a strong move ahead of his rivals. Stephanie Devaux-Lovell (St. Lucia) sailed consistently with a 2, 2, 7 scoreline to remain second overall but Matt Whitfield had a relatively poor first race, 15th, before recovering with an eighth and second to stay third but both Ross Mackley and Tom Joesbury are now breathing down his neck.

Day 3
To the intense disappointment of everyone the weather forecasters were proved right and there was never enough wind to allow racing to proceed today.

The weather forecast for the rest of the week is looking promising and the Race Teams will be looking to claw back today's two lost races before the championships end on Friday.

Day 2
The first development this morning was that the Laser 4.7 fleet elected to race inside the harbour. By mid-day a previous event had finished and, with a spare committee boat and race team available, the youngsters were able to save themselves the long sail to and from the main race area under Osmington Mills.

Out in the Bay the offshore breeze was shifting around an axis of 330o but with enough variation under the intermittent cloud cover to cause problems at the start line. The Standards first start was recalled and for the rest of the day the Standards and Radials were under the black flag, which helped but a number of boats did transgress and were sent home for the early bath.

In the Standard fleet the day belonged to Dutch sailor Rutger van Schaardenburg who won the morning race and came second behind compatriot Roelof Bouwmeester in the afternoon. Nicholas Heiner completes the all Dutch podium. British youth Jack Wetherell is now the leading home helm before a brace of Dutchmen and a Swiss sailor take the next places. But behind them is a flock of British sailors just waiting to climb the chart.

The 145 strong Radial fleet are still racing in two divisions and best of the crop today was Ross Harvey with a 2, 1 scoreline and with no discards yet applying in this fleet he heads the leaderboard. Andrea Brewster also did well winning her second race of the week in the afternoon and she lies a point behind Ross and ahead of yesterday’s leader Belgian Jereon Belis. Czech lady Veronica Fenclova won her first race but drew a yellow flag from the jury boat in the afternoon to slip to fourth in that race. When she can discard her Sunday black flag she will undoubtedly climb higher.

Inside the harbour the Laser 4.7 fleet enjoyed some very close racing. Matt Whitfield recorded two more second places but with the discard now available to the competitors Matt shares the overall lead with St. Lucia’s Stephanie Devaux-Lovell and Belgian Benjamin Wempe who had a 1, 3 scoreline.

Sunday's racing -
It was the foreign competitors that triumphed in Sunday’s racing. In the Radial fleet, after two races, three Belgians and a Swiss sailor hold the top four positions. Jereon Belis is level on points with Levi Slap with Evi van-Acker a point behind. British helm Andrea Brewster won her second race to lie fifth.

In the 85 strong Standard fleet Matt Reid won his single race ahead of three Dutch sailors. In the Laser 4.7 fleet Freddie Verburot (GBR) beat Matt Whitfield but St. Lucia’s Stepanie Devaux-Lovell took third spot.

Full results after Day 4 here

UK Laser Class Association here