RC Laser Winter Series at Fleetwood Model Yacht Club - Round 4
by Tony Wilson 18 Feb 2019 07:18 PST
17 February 2019
Fleetwood RC Laser Winter Series round 4 © Tony Wilson
Today we had the concluding part of our series over on the lake at Fleetwood. The weather was mild and looked like although adequate wind in strength was coming from the South, a tricky direction. Seven skippers present.
A course was set and we were in for a treat to test out Peter's new box of tricks that he had kindly put together, the new starting auntie. The old one although still fine and has served for many good years, looks more like a piece of furniture with a C60 Sinclair cassette recorder hidden in there compared to this piece of digital space age technology.
Tony hit the ground running and won the first race. That was the only one that Derek would let him have, although coming close a couple of times in the first few races of just one lap. We were starting by the pump house and had two beats across the lake with the rest of the race on a reach and finally finishing towards the club house.
B rigs were the favoured sail and apart from a couple of races in a bit of a lull coming up to lunch time and looking like an 'A', we kept hold of these for the day. The lake had a couple of holes in the wind, where you just had to ride them out and make an informed guess to which way your sail would flap. Also the near side was a bit frustrating to those that hadn't had this direction in wind experience.
Derek had the morning in the bag, with Tony in second place. Trevor had rattled off ten races and had decided to copy last week and make it again a dual event.
Lunchtime over and the wind had veered more to the west. So a reversal of the course, but it looked like we would have full wind. It even threatened the use of a smaller sail, but only momentarily.
And winning the races but by a smaller margin was Derek again, until one race he decided to abort. He had just been telling a couple of onlookers how hardy these boats are and rarely needed any attention in nearly fifteen years, when his sail soon let out in flutters. Praise just at the right time, Yes, but it had only come loose. This win he gave to Peter.
Eric was sailing well and usually went for the far side to gain as much distance before coming across for the windward mark. Jim also had some good races.
The afternoon went to Derek and Peter had secured second place, but it looked like Peter had won the series as Derek had a score missing from the series.
It had been a pleasurable and dry day with again lots of healthy walking and good sailing.
The next RC Laser racing will be over at West Lanc's, part of the Open series, Sunday 24th February 2019.
Day 4A results:
1 Derek Priestly 8 pts
2 Tony Wilson 16 pts
3 Peter Isles 24 pts
Day 4B results:
1 Derek Priestly 9 pts
2 Peter Isles 19 pts
3 Eric Austwick 27 pts