Wednesday Night Laser Series 06/07/2006

The best turn out of the season so far, with 8 boats racing despite the fact that there was next to no wind.  What little there was couldn't make it's mind up which way it wanted to blow, which meant a couple of course changes as the evening wore on.  However David Graham as OOD did a great job in organising 4 races, on what has to be the shortest course in sailing history.

A combination of boredom, overzealous roll tacking and the warm (relatively) water meant that there were still plenty of capsizes in between races.  There was also more than the usual amount of cheating going on, as considerable advantage could be gained from a getting a sly push off a fellow competitors boat.  Some were better than others, and the trick was to do it  just as the other boat went out of range and was therefore unable to retaliate..   In the second race there was also a very entertaining 8-boat pile up at the windward mark, when the entire fleet arrived at the same time and Alex on the outside deciding he was only required to provide a 1 boat gap between himself and the mark.

In the main race of the evening Peter McCardel showed everybody else how it is done with a pretty comfortable victory.  Isla took second place to retain her series lead.  However Guy Neville sportingly knackered his chances by swapping boats with Andy Chadwick.  The light conditions and short course meant that not even Guy could get the Dart round more than once.

Nick 06/07/2006