2011 Sunday Early Points Series: Race Report Race 1 (Feb 27 2011)

Written by Barry Sticklen Monday, 28 February 2011 00:00

Race 1

The first race of the Sunday early points series was sailed Sunday 27^th February. It was the first race of 2011 to be run from the LTSC’s permanently moored Committee boat ‘Baverstock’ in the Western Solent. The Race Officer John Sims set the course for both the Fast fleet and the Medium fleet boats.

6 starters came to the line in the Fast fleet and 13 Medium. The wind was in the South West and quickly rose from an average of 10 knots into the high teens with gusts of 20 knots+.

By the end of the first lap for the Fast Fleet, Andy Heissig was in the lead in his RS 600 from John Cooper & Becci Wigley in their RS 400. By this time 2 fast boats had retired along with one late starter.

In the Medium fleet, Mike Beggs and Vicki Leen were over the line at the start in their Laser Stratos and the first lap saw a further retirement. By the end of the first lap, Nigel Walbank sailing an RS Vareo was in the lead over the water, with Richard Russell RS 100 and Stewart Watson Blaze, hot on his heels.

In the Fast fleet, lap 2 saw yet another retirement and the race finished for them with Andy taking line honours from John & Becci. This was still the case after the handicaps had been applied.

The final lap of the Medium fleet race saw Richard Russell taking the lead from Nigel Walbank and Nick Fagan in his Blaze overtaking Stewart Watson.

When the handicaps were applied to these boats, Nick Fagan took 1^st place from Nigel Walbank 2^nd & Richard Russell 3^rd.