Laser Eastern Grand Prix at Harlow (Blackwater) Sailing Club
by Terri Sharman 13 Jun 2011 23:13 PDT
4 June 2011
Windy conditions returned yet again for the Harlow(Blackwater) SC Laser Open Meeting. A fleet of 15 boats braved the blustery force 5/6 north easterly wind to take part in the Club’s annual Laser Open Meeting which for the first time had been included in the Laser Eastern Grand Prix circuit. The meeting consisted of 3 races, sailed back to back from committee boat starts.
For safety reasons the race courses was set within the confines of Lawling Creek rather than out in the main river. The Race Officer set some challenging and testing courses and despite numerous capsizes and some gear failure the fleet were rewarded with some excellent and exciting racing.
In the standard class, Dan Dixon (Blackwater SC) led the way round in all 3 races to win convincingly with 3 straight wins, closely followed by Bryan Seargent (Blackwater SC) who came second overall. Third place was taken by Jon Simpson (Blackwater SC) who sailed consistently to narrowly beat the first Harlow boat of Mark Batt into 4th place.
In the Radial class, Matthew Aldous-Horne (Alton & FG SC) revelled in the windy conditions to take 1st overall with 3 firsts, with Malcolm Cross (Harlow(Blackwater) SC) sailing well to take 2nd place, followed by Edward Skinner (Harlow(Blackwater) SC) to take 3rd place.
Overall Results: (top six)
1st Dan Dixon (Blackwater SC)
2nd Bryan Seargent (Blackwater SC)
3rd Matthew Aldous-Horne (Alton & F.G SC)
4th Jon Simpson (Blackwater SC)
5th Mark Batt (Harlow(Blackwater) SC)
6th Richard Sharman (Harlow( Blackwater) SC)