Laser Radial Masters Inland Championships at Rutland Sailing Club

Jon Emmett wins the Laser Radial Masters Inland Championships © Guy Noble

Beautiful weather greeted the Laser Masters at Rutland on the Saturday morning of the event, that is if you like the surrounding fields and swans reflected in the mirror like surface of the water, but not if you wanted to take part in good sailing conditions. It wasn't looking good for getting in three intense races on the first day of the Inland Championships.

Eventually, after a postponement of just over an hour we were released from shore with the promised wind beginning to fill in over the lake.

The wind wasn't great but enough to get us under way. Starting after the Standard fleet has its advantages as the Radials could watch where on the start line the big boys were starting and which way, left or right, they made their way to the windward mark.

Remarkably both fleets got away first time and by the windward mark a pattern was starting to establish itself in the Radial fleet with Jon Emmett, Rob Cage and Mike Kinnear up at the front closely followed by David Catto and Gareth Edwards. It appeared that going right a short distance from the start line was paying off. The top three fought a close battle over the first race with Jon maintaining a short lead until the end, followed by Mike and then Rob. Alison Stevens could well have been up in the top five but for a gear failure which ended her race.

The second race was looking like a repeat of the first race with Jon eventually establishing a slightly bigger lead but this time from David who got past Mike on the broad reach and held him off to the finish. Rob made the error of not sailing farther enough to the right side of the course on the windward leg, it was that critical in this shifty wind. Rob lost out to David and Mike and finished fourth with Gareth fifth. That was it for the day as the wind was dropping away, but hey not many of us thought we would get two races when we first arrived.

We were all hoping for better winds come Sunday, but it was not to be as we were met with foggy conditions which meant no appreciable wind on the lake. This resulted in the inevitable postponement. A few glimpses of the sun cleared the fog and we were launching an hour later. The wind strength was even less than on Saturday and had swung from the South to WNW so all the knowledge of what way to go up the beat from the previous day was out the window.

The RO got us away for the first race of the day without too much difficulty. This time it wasn't obvious from watching the Standards what was the best route to the windward mark so there was a lot of guess work needed, although on the face of it, it didn't seem to pay to hit the corners. Rob had obviously gone into a dark room overnight and meditated because he was leading at the windward mark this time and held off Jon all the race to take his first bullet of the event. Behind Rob and Jon at the windward mark came Gareth & David and then Bob Draper, looking fully recovered from a bad shoulder injury, who had made the best of the fluky conditions to round in fifth. The finishing positions were Rob, Jon, Gareth, David and Mike.

Conditions continued to deteriorate with the wind alternatively rising and fading so there was a bit of a wait until the second race of the day could be started. The RO was determined to get in another race and everyone was actually looking forward to a much needed discard.

The wind was dying all during the race and Rob appeared at the top mark in first position and looked on course to repeat his result in the previous race but that was without taking account of the brilliance of Jon who had a poor first beat and only managed fifth at the first windward mark. Jon proceeded to work his way through the field and finished first followed by Rob and then Alison who seemed to be really enjoying the conditions. Mike was fourth and David fifth. The wind had virtually disappeared by the time the back markers were struggling to finish so we were sent home to get ashore before darkness fell.

Our thanks go to Rutland SC and the Race Committee and Team for a very good series sailed in very trying conditions. Also, to all our sponsors: Laser Performance UK, Wildwind, Southeast Sailboats, Minorca Sailing, Rooster, Fernhurst Books and Merger IT for continuing to provide their amazing support.

Radial Fleet Results:

Laser (and Radial) Masters Inland Championships prizewinners - photo © Guy Noble