RC Laser and DF65 Winter Series at West Lancashire Yacht Club - Day 4
by Tony Wilson 18 Feb 2018 22:44 PST
18 February 2018
With a 13mph breeze, dropping to 9mph later in the day, all from the South East with partial cloud cover, it was looking just about perfect for part 4 of the West Lancashire series. It was dry and a bit milder than the last couple of events, so was going to be a good day.
We were back on the joint course with a more even mix of 9 RC Lasers and 10 Dragon Force 65 Skippers with the 1 minute interval start to split us up. John Brierley was helping out and had the command of the start button just after the Lasers had set off.
The course start line was towards the basin of the lake and required two laps using 3 marks all taken to port and finishing slightly higher up on a separate finish line to what we are accustomed to.
Laser A sails were tuned in advance as most thought these were the ones to be used. Shaun had an early outing and replaced it for the next size down as also did others. The B sail was the sail size for the day.
The first race looked a bit cramped as the Lasers were sometimes near to bashing into our small friends with Dragons, but was quickly sorted after Alan reshuffled a couple of buoys to make a bit more room. Skip won the first Laser race followed by Shaun.
On the next race it was Shaun Holbech who was taking the lead, John Sharman was also in his usually good elements except for the occasional loss of control. So was it a low battery causing this or some hidden radio gremlin?
One of the Dragons was also seen at a great distance on auto pilot, it's amazing how trimmed they sail on their own and how easy it was to see, even though it was heading towards the other side of the lake. Alan was soon on the chase in his speed boat and he didn't really have a minute to himself all day as he also had running galley duties to make sure the troops were going to be fed and watered.
Eight races were held before lunch for both classes and although we had some sunshine it didn't feel as bad with glare as previous times because of the lay of the course.
The afternoon racing had Alan's surprise element as he had now included a gate at the leeward end of the course. It proved to be well balanced as there was no great advantage to either side you took as you had winning chances from both ends.
The Dragons looked to be all in their A Sail suit and the odd one later went for the A plus as the wind felt like it had dropped a touch. The Laser guys had more or less all stuck with the B rig. Colin and Jason remained with the C sail and seemed to be having their own little battles against each other and at times it probably felt like the right size sail to be using.
To put in 15 full races for the day proved we had good fun and you couldn't have really wished for better conditions. Three Laser Skippers posted a first and four DF65 skippers posted more than one win, so it wasn't all one way traffic in either of the classes. Rumour has it that the next event at Southport will be missing a couple of the star players so it could be time to make your move.
Day 4 Results:
RC Laser
1 Shaun Holbech 23 pts
2 Skip Reaser 27 pts
3 John Sharman 30 pts
DF 65
1 John Tushingham 21 pts
2 John Brierley 24 pts
3 Liz Tushingham 43 pts