Medway RC Laser Club Winter Series 2025 at Barton's Point Coastal Park - Week 4
by Tim Townsend 10 Feb 09:28 GMT
9 February 2025
Deck layout of a radio-controlled Laser © Tony Wilson
Five warmly dressed skippers met at Barton's Point on Sunday morning for week five, another gripping episode in the Medway RC Laser Club winter series. There were several absentees, most notably our RO, but even in her absence the honesty box called a couple of boats OCS during the morning.
The wind was lighter than forecast but from the east as expected. It was pretty cold, especially while setting and recovering the buoys and while rescuing a couple of entangled boats. But at least it did nor rain.
With the wind direction as it was, a reaching start was set in the shadow of the cafe followed by a sausage and triangle with a couple of one sided beats, a couple of runs and then a reach to finish. The largest, A rigs were used for the whole morning in about 5 knots of breeze although the occasional stronger gust caused boats of the unwary to spin out.
A relaxed schedule meant we completed 12 races during the morning. Tim (45) won the first 7 races on the spin up to the break while Tony (04) and Jon (84) shared most of the seconds and thirds. Racing was close; sometimes too close, with Roger (32) and Tony's boats getting just a bit too friendly in race 3 and slowly drifting ashore in a warm embrace, while Tony's boat transferred its affection to Jon's boat in race 6 requiring the rescue boat to be deployed.
After a mid morning break and welcome cup of coffee in the cafe, things were very different with Jon winning races 8 and 9, and Tony winning races 10, 11 and 12 while Tim struggled to regain his earlier ascendancy. Roger and Bob (76) benefitted at times from the misfortunes of others and both placed in the top three in some races.
Results:
1. Tim 13pts
2. Tony 20pts
3. Jon 25pts
4. Roger 34pts
5. Bob 42pts
About the class/club
The RC Laser is a radio controlled scale model of the Laser/ILCA and a strict one design. It provides close racing in winds from 2-20+ knots. Weather permitting, the RC Laser fleet of the Medway YC meet at Barton's Point Coastal Park ME12 2BX most Sundays between the beginning of December and the end of March.