Laser Masters Series at Swanage Sailing Club

The third event in the 2010 series and the first ranking event for the 2011 World Masters in San Francisco took place at Swanage Sailing Club over the weekend 19/20 June. The event attracted an entry of 77, split into 37 standard rigs and 40 radial rigs.

The wind forecast for the weekend did not look very promising, indicating little wind at the mid point of both days when most of the racing would take place. Fortunately this did not prove to be the case.

On Saturday the wind started off north north west at approximately 15 knots, backing to north during the day and dropping to 10 knots by the end. This meant that the windward mark was set near the cliffs and resulted in some interesting wind patterns approaching the mark. Initially the right approach appeared to be hitting the right hand corner and then tacking.

Sunday morning started off with little wind and the fleet was kept ashore for twenty minutes until there was enough to go out on the water. Setting courses for the races proved challenging in the oscillating wind with a sometimes mean north east direction. This resulted in a number of general recalls for both fleets, the tide now having an effect in the lighter (7 knot) wind. The windward mark was once again below the cliffs but did not have the same effect as the previous day. During the second race of the day the wind swung through 180 degrees and increased to 10 – 15 knots. This stayed for the remainder of the day to provide better sailing conditions.

In the standard fleet Orlando Gledhill finished the event in first place overall having scored three first and two second places to accumulate 7 points. Second was Phil King on 20 points and third Tony Woods on 22 points.

Ian Gregory was once again at the front of the radial fleet finishing in first place overall on 10.5 points, followed by Andrew Chapman in second on 26.5 points and David Summerville in third on 38.5 points, the half points indicating some close finishes!

Overall Results: