RC Laser Northern District TT at Burwain Sailing Club
by Tony Wilson 4 Oct 2019 01:02 PDT
29 September 2019
RC Laser Northern District TT at Burwain © Tony Wilson
With a lousy weather forecast, was it even worth setting off in the car for the first in the new Pre Christmas Northern district series. The last few days had seen constant rain and even on this day it was already tipping it down.
Trevor was thinking likewise as he was also heading East from Fleetwood and was seriously considering turning back on his journey along the M65. Just as you arrived at Nelson it looked like it may have been easing, but looks are deceptive. The Ford as you cross the little valley also looked in full flow as rain water was gushing down along the roadside. There's two lines of thought on crossing this. Do you take it easy and chance stopping in the middle, or take a bit of a drive at it with a full swelled tidal wave pushing through. Trevor and myself both chanced the latter. The sensible alternative was to probably drive around the top road. Ah well.
We had a slightly late start and nobody was too keen, but we did have 5 of the faithful Burwain crowd and one outsider, so it was good to go. Boatman Peter placed a few buoys around on the water and we had a 11:00 start, with a couple of one lappers just to get going. (do all sailing clubs have a boatman named Peter)
As nobody wanted to get too wet, we thought racing from the comforts of the clubhouse was a pretty good idea. With a line of lake facing windows and the balcony it seemed to work fine for just the handful of skippers and what other outside sport can you enjoy on a rainy day.
Tony from Fleetwood was provided with some bib and brace waterproofs and looked a delight in his blue romper suit. We were going get a bit damp whether we liked it or not as we still had to launch our boats.
The wind was coming from a Northerly direction which was a new one on me, but all the same and we sailed a triangular course all to clockwise for those first two races with Hugo taking race one and Richard taking the other. Tony seemed to be losing all gained on the last leeward mark, was it his radio again with all that iron in the jetty (more than the forth road bridge) because it couldn't be the boat.
Race three to six were now extended to a triangle sausage course to stretch them out a bit from the previous 6 minute races and all taken by Hugo as he was on top form. Trevor now had a phone call to say that his afternoon elsewhere had been cancelled so he was with us to stay, so he was in no rush. Race 7 and 8 were reduced back down to a triangle one lap to get the eight in the bag before lunch. Peter seemed to be having winch issues that curtailed his racing.
For the afternoon session we decided on four more races. Hugo, Sarah and Alan went out with Big rigs, while Richard and Tony remained with the B sails as the gunwhales were still well under the water. The race brought about mixed results but by the end of the race the wind did actually ease and the waves were disappearing so we all went big. These two races were two lappers and then the final last couple of races were just one circuit to finish on a dozen, which doesn't seem that bad on such a dreary day.
The racing had been good and there were some close fought battles with the top three. When the rain had eased and the lake flattened, without those waves the boats seemed to be flying as they were planing downwind. There doesn't seem to be anything that stops this club from sailing radio, apart from the full size regattas and they already look ready to embrace the cold weather from the warmth of the interior of the clubhouse........unless this freshwater lake freezes.
Next race in the series is over at West Lanc's Southport. Remember three to count from the six, with at least one away from home club. Keep an eye on updates: sites.google.com/site/fairhavenlasers/calendar
Results:
1 Hugo Chandor 13pts
2 Richard Whittle 19 pts
3 Tony Wilson 23 pts