Solo Open Results & Pics

On Sunday 29th September Leigh & Lowton sailing club hosted their Solo open meeting.  The format was agreed as four races in total with two back to back, lunch and the remaining two back to back.

On arrival the sun was shining without a cloud in the sky and the wind was blowing a good Force 5 from the east.  The strength of the wind put a few people off but allowed the race team to use the full length of the lake for the long beat and downwind leg for the 27 competitors who took to the water.

Race 1 – The wind had eased to a Force 4 with occasional strong gusts as the boats made there way up the long beat to the top end of the lake.  Paul Heath (LLSC) rounded first and led the fleet for the first lap but there were big gains and loses to be made both upwind and downwind in the flickering and gusty conditions.  Eventually Heath was over hauled up the beat by Ian Hopwood (Nantwich & Borders SC) who then extended his lead with some fast off wind sailing to win comfortably from Chris Robinson (Royal Windermere SC) who after a poor start showed good pace.  Third was the current inland champion Michael Sims (Carsington SC) with Heath finishing fourth and Philip Barnes (Budworth SC) fifth.

Race 2 – Conditions stayed the same and the end result of this race showed that the ‘good guys’ seemed to have settled down and mastered the gusts and the shifts.  First at the windward mark was Chris Brown (Draycote Water SC) closely followed by the chasing pack which included Hopwood, Sims, Dave Winder (Hollingworth Lake SC) and Patrick Hamilton (Burwain SC) There was plenty of jostling and tactical racing amongst the fleet and as the breeze picked up there were a few capsizes.  One of these was Hopwood who took a quick dip but after a quick recovery he still managed to finish fifth.  At the front Sims took the bullet with Brown second, Winder third and Hamilton fourth.

After lunch the fleet launched again to similar conditions as before.

Race 3 – This race saw Heath arrive at the windward mark first but he managed to clip it with his boom as he bore of and was greatful to Brown for letting him know.  Brown then rounded and went on to comfortably take the win with Sims second, Winder third, Heath fourth and Alex Taylor (Budworth SC) fifth.

Race 4 – This was the decider for the open between Sims and Brown depending on how Brown played it with regards tackling Sims and improving his own discard.  The wind had increased for the start and at the windward mark it was Sims who rounded first closely followed by Brown.  It was a run down to the next mark and with a lot of boats close together and some big gusts there were going to be casualties.  Brown gybed in a gust to try and get across Sims and put himself between Sims and the next mark but he rolled it in directly in front of Stephen Graham (Burwain SC) who reacted quickly enough to avoid capsizing himself but not to avoid a collision.  This put paid to Browns chances and he retired from the race.  Sims went on to extend his lead and was never troubled by the following pack.  Graham was now second, Adam Savage (Elton SC) third and Heath fourth.  On the next dead run Graham capsized as he gybed to approach the leeward mark to start the beat and Savage had a few hair raising moments as he put in two gybes and came out of them with his mast pointing at the shore line and sailing on his gunnels but survived.  Heath passed Savage upwind and clung on to take second place from a late charge from Winder.  Hamilton came in fourth and Andy Fox (LLSC) finished fifth after dropping back due to incurring an earlier

penalty.

At the prize giving Sims acknowledged the hard work of the race team of Paul and Ritchie Allen and Brian Sprague for faultless way they got all four races away without incident and to the crews of the rescue boats that had a busy day.

A full set of results and photographs can be found on the link via the Leigh & Lowton website: http://leighandlowton.wordpress.com/2013/09/28/preview-solo-northern-travellers-sunday-29th-september/

There is also a YouTube video of the racing on this link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMOdAm075tE&feature=youtu.be