RNLI Trophy Day – 29th March 2015

Given that the forecast during the week was for force 7/8 winds it was great to see 18 boats on the water for what turned out to be a wet, wild, windy and exhilarating sail for the RNLI trophy day event.

Half an hour before the due midday start there was a light, and very patchy, northerly force 2 trying to establish itself but this soon disappeared. It was forecast to blow from the west so a postponement was put in place and sure enough, at 12.30, the wind began to blow, and build, from the west allowing the club line to be used and a fairly long beat set.

Race 1 was fairly mundane with a few boats capsizing in the steadily building breeze but at the head of the fleet the boats were quite close throughout so, although the RS400 of Terry Oliver/Mark Cuthbert had a large lead on the water, on handicap it was Stuart Belfield (Laser) who took the win from Steve White in his new (to him) Solution. Third was Bill Busby (Laser) and Hayden Griffiths (Laser Radial ) fourth.

In the 4 boat junior fleet the Toppers of Lorcan Knowles and Natasha Helsby had a good battle but couldn’t stop Olivia Cuthbert (Optimist) taking first place on handicap while Josh Manney (RS Tera) was fourth.

Due to losing 45 minutes to the postponement, the building breeze and the promise of much more wind to come, it was decided to have a short 5 minute breather and then launch straight into the second race.

This one was not for the faint hearted as it really did began to blow with boats being flattened both upwind and downwind by the sheer magnitude of the gusts. Needless to say they were a few retirements from gear and body failure and only 6 of the main fleet finished.

New entry Charlotte Greenhalgh (Laser Radial) took an early lead but then realised she didn’t know the course so had to wait to be shown around the first lap before then moving through the gears to head the fleet home. Griffiths was next home to take second, Mark Cuthbert (Supernova) third, Bill Busby fourth and Glyn Purnell (Laser Radial) fifth.

All four boats in the junior fleet started but only three finished after Helsby, midway through the race, suffered a windward capsize half way up the beat and then, having recovered from that, she was then flattened by a gust going downwind, got into further difficulties so called it a day.

Due to the many calamities the remaining three boats had between them they all finished with 12 seconds of each other. Knowles crossed first, Manney second some 12 seconds behind him and Cuthbert 1 second after that.

All boats headed for the shore, pulled their boats out of the water and kept going to their berths. A sure sign that they had all had enough which was good enough as the wind whistled around them and major white horses could be seen rolling down the Flash. This went down well with the race team and the very busy, cold and wet safety boat crews who had played a blinder.

In the end Griffiths was the winner, Busby second and Cuthbert third.

In the junior fleet it was Cuthbert, Knowles, Manney and Helsby. The OD, being such a nice bloke, presented Easter eggs and other chocs to all four juniors.

In the main fleet Griffiths tried to grab a bottle of wine but due to his age had to leave with an Easter egg while Busby and Cuthbert took the wine.

Results link:https://llsc.org.uk/LLSC/Results/2015/RNLITrophyDay.htm

RNLI Trophy Day Handicap Fleet Race 1 Race 2 Total

1 Laser Radial Hayden Griffiths 4 2 6
2 Laser Bill Busby 3 4 7
3 Supernova Mark Cuthbert 5 3 8
4 Laser Radial Glyn Purnell 7 5 12
5 Laser Radial Charlotte Greenhalgh DNS 14
6 Laser Stuart Belfield 1 DNF 16
7 Solution Steve White 2 DNF 17
8 Phantom Mark Dingsdale DNS 6 19
9 Phantom Steve Norris 6 DNF 21
10 RS400 Terry Oliver/Mark Cuthbert 8 DNF 23
11 Laser Radial Ross Southwell 9 DNS 25
12 Laser Tom Julian 10 DNF 25
13 Solo Chris Helsby 11 DNF 26
14 Solo Dave Kelsall 12 DNF 27

Junior Fleet

1 Optimist Olivia Cuthbert 1 1 2
2 Topper Lorcan Knowles 2 3 5
3 RS Tera Josh Manney 4 2 6
4 Topper Natasha Helsby 3 DNF 8