Laser UK National Championships at Largs Sailing Club - Day 1
by Ben Flower & Stephanie Videlo 29 Jul 2019 04:56 PDT
27 July - 2 August 2019
Jon Emmett wins the first race of the Laser UK National Championships at Largs © Tony Woods
Standard Fleet - Race 1
The first race greeted the sailors with a 10-12 knot breeze with all sailors hiking up the first beat. Ben Flower led at the top mark closely being chased down by Joe Drake and Jake Farren-Price. A difficult downwind led to Drake leading at the leeward mark from Farren-Price and event favourite Sam Whaley. Joe Woodley led the fleet round the opposite go right mark.
A closely fought second beat with Drake holding onto his lead but was overtaken down wind by Whaley as he got caught up with lapping Radial sailors. Whaley took the honours with JFP second and Drake holding off Jack Hopkins for third.
Standard Fleet - Race 2
The second race the wind died with four sailors starting on port being led by Lewis Smith. Smith held onto his lead in front of Joe Scurrah with Flower and Chris Jones hot on their heels. A steady downwind with no place changes down the front.
The second downwind had a gamble pressure line on the right side of the course with Smith and Flower heading towards. Smith defended his lead and went back left but Flower stuck at it and lucked into leading at the top mark and would hold off Smith for the win with Roger O'Gorman third.
Radials - Race 1
After a lengthy delay on shore, the fleets were finally released at 13:15 in very light airs. Boats were initially towed until a decent 10-12 mph breeze kicked in and helped the 2 mile sail out to the race area.
Race 1 saw a clean start in a steady 10-12 mph breeze. Jon Emmett pulled out a commanding lead by the first leeward mark and the sun made it's first appearance of the regatta! Jon held on to win comfortably from Arthur Farley with Max Warnar in third.
4.7s - Race 1
One boat was a little too eager and was called OCS at the first start. Afraid your author had to attend to the Radial's leeward mark and missed much of the 4.7 race. Final positions were Lizzie Beardsall from Coco Barrett then Freddie Howarth.
Radials and 4.7s - Race 2
The wind had dropped for both fleet starts to around 6-8 mph. In the Radials there was a big backer that paid all on the left of the first beat.
Fluctuating direction and wind strength was the feature of the race with plenty of big gains and losses. At the end Dan Gaughey Dan 215381 prevailed from Isabel Wallwork and Gordon Sivarajan.
For the 4.7s, the shift to the left happened just before the start. A few boats spotted this and started on the pin to tremendous advantage. With the wind dropping throughout the race and the PRO shortening the beats as best he could, the 4.7s were in for a long slow race which was won by Alana Cloakley with Jack Graham- Troll in second and Luke Anstey taking third.
It was a long day on the water for everyone. The two mile sail back to the club in a dying breeze meant the fleet did not return to shore until around 7pm... ready for the BBQ!