RC Laser Winter Series event at West Lancashire Yacht Club
by John Armstrong 9 Jan 2020 01:45 PST
5 January 2020
RC Laser Winter Series at West Lancs © Tony Wilson
On Sunday 5th January West Lancs Yacht Club hosted the first of the traditional early season RC Laser series for the northern area. The event as usual was shared with the Dragonflight class which will alternate with the Dragonforce class on alternating race weekends.
The weather for the day was perfect with a moderate Southwesterly breeze with the nine boat fleet all opting for B rigs. The course consisted of a triangle and then sausage. The windward mark had a spreader mark laid a short distance away with the leeward mark consisting of a gate. This worked well for most of the day.
The nine competitors coming to the line came from a broad spread of clubs with boats from as far as Wales and Nottinghamshire. Making an appearance for the first time for a number of months was former champion Dave Fowler. All hopes of him suffering from a bit of ring rust was dashed in the first race which he won by a considerable margin. This continued with three more firsts. Behind was very close racing with John Sharman just appearing as the best of the rest. He then picked up his game and won race 5 and 6.
The usual expert race management from the West Lancs team tweaked the course a bit to keep the RC Lasers and Dragonflights slightly further apart. This did not stop Dave Fowler from taking three more race wins before lunch.
After lunch it felt like the wind had eased very slightly. Tony Wilson was the only sailor to gamble with a change to an A rig. He was rewarded for his courage with a race win in the marginal conditions. This spawned a couple more A rigs for race 11 with John Armstrong following up Tony's result with a win using an A rig.
For the final five races of the afternoon the A rigs were put away for B rigs. Dave Fowler took three more wins and John Sharman a further two wins. The final win went to J Sinclair meaning that from 16 races we had five different race winners.
Dave Fowler was first overall for the day with John Sharman a bit further back in second. Further back the placings were much closer with Tony Wilson finishing third just 2 points clear of Peter Iles in fourth.
A big thank you to the West Lancs race team of Alan and Trevor who once again ran a fantastic event. We look forward to the next round on Sunday 19th January.
Results:
1st Dave Fowler 17 points
2nd John Sharman 35 points
3rd Tony Wilson 40 points
4th Peter Iles 42 points