RC Laser Open Meeting at Black Swan Sailing Club

Action from the RC Laser Open Meeting at Black Swan © David Smythe

The leading results, on a gloriously sunny and blustery day at Black Swan Sailing Club, Reading, were dominated by "big" boat skippers; "Big" meaning dinghies or keelboats!

Both Tim Davison, recent full size Laser Masters National and European Champion, and Rick Tagg, Laser 4000 European and National Champion in years past, featured consistently in the leading boats.

Paul Newman and John Arundell, whilst never reaching the dizzy heights of Tim and Ricks dinghy achievements, are both experienced full size Laser helms. Dave Watson is an experienced Keelboat skipper.

In a fleet of 23 boats sailed in 2 heats, (common in RadioControl Sailing), there was much to-ing and fro-ing between heats as skippers were promoted then demoted due to the trying conditions! There was a lot of head scratching deciding which two (of 3) of the rigs to choose for the conditions of choppy water and shifting winds between 5 and 15 mph during the 18 races completed. In many races the decision to change up or down was left as late as two minutes before the start as it is so easy to change rigs quickly on these one-design boats.

The answer in most races seemed to be the smallest "C" rig provided that you got a good start in clear wind and stayed up the middle playing the shifts. Rarely did the wind drop enough during a race that the larger "B" rig paid off without the usual Chinese jibes, nose-diving and difficulty tacking that the "B" rig causes when overpowered. It was noticeable that the "C" rigged leading skippers could keep pace and point as high upwind making better VMG than the B rigged boats, and lost little ground downwind.

John Arundell mostly seemed to get good starts on crowded lines, getting clear wind, staying out of trouble, picking the shifts up the middle and turning the windward mark in the first 3 in each race. However, on 3 occasions trying to gybe at the leeward mark, when overpowered in B rig, he suffered loss of places by getting spectacularly out of control, but managed to recover and finished 1st overall with 7 wins from 9 races, discarding two second places. Paul Newman, 2nd, Rick Tagg, 3rd, and Tim Davison, 4th were all very consistent, Paul pipping Rick into second by counting a 5th as his worst result. The most successful club was Yateley Model Sailing Club with 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th in the overall result.

John Arundell observed; "I was very impressed by the standard of skippers in the leading positions. I race 2 or 3 times a week in various RC Classes which makes a big difference, particularly in big fleets. So I take my hat off to these guys that only do RC Sailing intermittently. Maybe they have had some secret tutoring and coaching!".

Nearly all the top skippers suffered from collisions, usually near the windward mark and the resulting mayhem or 360 degree penalties impacted their results. It was a day for staying out of trouble as penalty turns in these boats can be a lengthy and race losing penalty.

Trouble also came in the form of gear failure, usually electrical but the best one was a snapped keel fin followed up by a plethora of riding turns on sail-winch pulleys. This meant instant retirement and there were at least 4 examples of this mostly caused by that monofilament sheeting that comes as standard. Most skippers have changed to Dacron or Dyneema and very few boats failed as a result.

It is very interesting to observe that all 5 of the leading skippers have taken up Radio Controlled sailing only in the last 12 months. So come on you big boat skippers why not ring the UK RC Laser Association and find out where you can have a demo. It is a sport that sails throughout the winter months when you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for the new season to start.