Laser South Coast Grand Prix at Keyhaven Yacht Club

Keyhaven Laser Open © Darren Willis

Keyhaven Laser Open © Darren Willis

Caribbean conditions continued at Keyhaven this weekend with wall to wall sunshine for the Laser South Coast Grand Prix on Saturday.

Out in the Solent, the Easterlies were still in charge, although they offered up little puff for the nine competing dinghies to play with. Order of play was three back-to-back races round a course laid just off Hurst Spit, under the watchful eye of the Isle of Wight. The afternoon's racing delivered mixed fortunes for the sailors calling for tactical light-wind manoeuvres matched up with bare knuckle fights with the tide.

All three starts got away cleanly and despite the lacklustre wind, the contest was witness to some very close racing with a great deal of skill on show. Petty headed up the charge for the Standard rig, dominating the fleet and leading the way each race and finishing the day with three wins in the bag. Over in the Radial fleet, Draper stole a march on Emmett for the first race, explained away by Emmett as the result of a 'miscalculation in the tide gradient'. Emmett worked hard to gain the lead, chasing down his fellow Radial sailor but despite his efforts, had to settle for 2nd place giving a Draper a well-deserved win.

Emmett was back in charge for the next race nudging Draper back into second place and Keyhaven's Lee into third. By the time race 3 had got underway for the Radials the wind had decided to wander off elsewhere leaving the tide in control of proceedings. Only Emmett was in a position to finish the race as the remainder of the becalmed fleet chose to head for home before the tide beat them.

Overall winner of the Standard rig was Sam Petty, overall winner of the Radial rig was Jon Emmett.

Overall Results:

Jon Emmett wins the Radial fleet in the Keyhaven Laser Open - photo © Darren Willis

Sam Petty wins the Standard fleet in the Keyhaven Laser Open - photo © Darren Willis