Commodore snatches 2^nd from winning position!

A great evening’s Laser sailing was enjoyed by the 7 competitors turning out for round 2 of the Thursday evening series.

B Rigs were the order of the day as trying A before the start clearly indicated that these would struggle.

Throughout the 6 heats the racing was always keen and close with some finish line situations needing very careful watching to see if the boat in 2^nd or even 3^rd place on the final leg could overtake the leader.

Chris Durant sailing the demo boat got off to a cracking start taking the first two heats. Whether in heat 3 it was his bad luck or John Smith and Davids Swainson’s excellent choice of going to the left of the course rather than the right is probably open to debate but they came through to make sure he couldn’t make it 3 in a row! Terry Mason also came home ahead of Chris in one of the many tight finishes.

Heat 4 saw Paul Nesbitt get out in front closely followed by David and Terry with Terry making a better job of rounding the final mark to get home by a couple of boat lengths.

Heat 5 brought probably the closest of the finishes with Chris snatching the win from John by probably no more than 3 inches. Mark Barker had been keeping them both honest for a very creditable 3^rd place.

Heat 6 was to see the only real tangle of the evening approaching the final rounding with Chris and Terry just being caught by a gust at the last moment whilst John and Paul were able to round the mark into the final leg, only for David to pip Paul on the line.

Sam Nesbitt had been particularly unfortunate with weed seeming to be magnetic to his keel.

Final overall scores then; John 1^st with net 10, Chris 2^nd net 12, Terry 3^rd, David 4^th 14 and 15 points respectively showing just how close the racing had been.

John Smith

16April 2015