RC Laser National Championships at Ayr Bay Model Yacht Club
by Tim Long 26 Sep 2012 15:56 BST
22-23 September 2012
RC Laser National Championships at Castle Semple © D Hulin
Well I have just about recovered from the Nationals weekend, and what a fantastic weekend it was, the sun shone all weekend, there was some breeze at times and the whole event was very well organised by Ayr Bay MYC so many many thanks to them for such a well-run event at such a great sailing location.
As we arrived 'pondside' on Saturday morning it was clear that the day would be one of light and variable breeze which was exactly how it worked out! After the briefing there were the two seeding races which determined the initial A & B fleets for the 23 skippers.
I ended up in the B fleet and raced probably more races than anyone else over the weekend in what I dubbed "The Value For Money Exercise!" as I bounced my way between the A & B fleets all day. The top of the A fleet was looking like a familiar battle between John Tushingham and Dave Fowler however they weren't the only ones to score well with dark horse John Sharman making good inroads into the A fleet.
It must be mentioned though that the conditions on Saturday didn't suit everyone with some of the top Northern District sailors only just making the top ten by the end of Saturdays sailing. It should also be mentioned that the calibre of the whole fleet was very high and even Dave Fowler found himself in the B fleet for a brief period on Sunday.
There was then the obligatory social on Saturday evening at The Bowfield which was very well attended. The meal was superb and the drinks were likewise, I stand by my assumption that the RC Laser fleet is indeed a very sociable one with the Abersoch contingent showing everyone how it should be done, especially a certain Mr Holland!
Sunday had been forecast to be a breezy old day, however in the end we had similar conditions to Saturday and A rigs prevailed through most of the day apart from the odd race towards the end of the day when the B rig came out.
The racing was pretty similar too with JT and Dave making much of the running, but again John Sharman took a couple of bullets and did well through the day.
Towards lunchtime there was a big windshift which caused an early lunch and a rejig of the course for the afternoon which meant that the course was sailed with the windward mark quite some distance from the shoreline which caused numerous collisions and missed marks during the afternoon, even for the top sailors.
The last race saw RC Laser fleet newcomer Brian Holland of the growing Abersoch fleet find some excellent form to finish the championship on a high with a third place in an A fleet race, no mean feat with such a high calibre of skippers.
Overall Results: (top ten)
1st John Tushingham, 24pts
2nd Dave Fowler, 40pts
3rd John Sharman, 58pts
4th Adrian Tomlinson, 60pts
5th Peter Lansdale, 68pts
6th Neil Coleman, 81pts
7th Gordon Allison, 83pts
8th Skip Reaser, 84pts
9th Shaun Holbeche, 86pts
10th Adam Kissick, 100pts
A thoroughly enjoyable weekend with a great bunch of skippers a well organised race team and a superb location with all facilities nearby. Once again a big thank you to Ayr Bay MYC for their excellent organisation of the event and also an even bigger thanks to Charles Woodward the Manager of the Clyde & Muirshiel Regional Park and the Castle Semple site for allowing us to use their superb facility. If you sail in another fleet and haven't yet been to Castle Semple then you really should make the journey North of the border it won't be a wasted one.