Laser 5000 Open at Poole Yacht Club

Laser 5000s at Poole © Mike Millard

Laser 5000s at Poole © Mike Millard

Laser 5000s at Poole © Mike Millard

The 7th and 8th May saw 5 boats meet for the first Laser 5000 Open of 2011. The wind was forecast to bring a range of racing conditions, testing both low wind racing and high wind survival sailing.

Saturday started light, with many crews searching for the twin wire breeze. Towards the end of the day which gave us conditions ranging from force 3 to gusts of 5 in the final race. Mark and Susie Reynell manged bullets in each of the 3 races on the Saturday with great boat speed and I'm sure a bit of local knowledge, showing a clean pair of heels to the rest of the fleet who were attempting to avoid a fleet of foiling moths (or were they trying to avoid us!).

A great Italian meal that evening lulled the fleet into a false sense of security - Sunday saw force 5 conditions, with massive gusts in the force 6 range, very trying conditions for all, 2 boats decided to sit it out, with 3 heading out to the race area. Unfortunatley Mark and Susie had a capsize before the first start which resulted in a helm size hole in the mainsail and and early retirement. That left Taff/Mark, Tom/Alec to fight it out in the very windy conditions. With breathtaking speed upwind, Tom and Alec seemed to be taking it, however by the dint of CMG as opposed to VMG (just this once) Taff/Mark made it to the windward mark first, only to round and try and set the kite to find it wouldn't set due to the sheets beign wrapped around the pole. This left Tom/Alec to go screaming down wind with kit flying, with Taff/Mark following on a white sail broad reach (hair on fire). Luckily, Tom left it too late to drop the kite and went the wrong side of the gate, leaving Taff to head off up wind in the lead again. This sort of trend set the scene for the remaining laps, with the boat making the least mistakes (and therefore capsizes in these conditions) to win - but only just!

With the wind building all the time, the Race Officer decided to call it a day and both boats headed in, while Thomas and Ade were heading out!! They had a great practice session as blue skies appeared.

Overall Results:

1st Mark/Susie, 3pts
2nd Taff/Mark, 5pts
3rd Thomas/Aland, 8pts
4th Tom/Alec, 10pts
5th Ade/James, 16pts

More photos of the heavy wind sailing can be found on flickr.

Many boats from this weekend will be making the trip up to Filey for the Nationals (25th and 26th June) and with the European champions coming down from Scotland, the national championship is going to be hotly contested.