West Riding Sailing Club, Wakefield, Yorkshire

WRSC Sailors Impress at Open Meetings

WRSC sailors came away with two 1^st places and a 2^nd in three open meetings attended this weekend, a great start for our Travellers this year!

Tim Keighley took part in a Laser Wessex Series event at Bristol Corinthian SC, a beautiful large circular lake with long legs, which caused Tim some pain upwind. As elsewhere this weekend the wind blew, force 4-5 reports Tim, with screaming reaches to match. Tim's score of 1,4,1 gave him a great overall win, despite leading the fleet round for an extra lap in one race. Probably part of a cunning plan to burn off the less fit.

Meanwhile back up north at darkest Delph SC, Hamish Gledhill was enjoying equally robust conditions with a wind cut to ribbons by the surrounding scenery. Every competitor capsized at some stage of the day. The racing was as close and fierce as the wind with some of the names missing from the WRSC event back in action. After a second in the opening race, Hamish managed to clinch two 1^st places after closely fought races, and with it a most convincing overall victory.

Two out of two!

Mark Weston, James Porter and Jonathan and John Gledhill represented half the visiting Solos at Burwain SC's Northern Travellers event. At the briefing they were told that the wind in the east gave the steadiest wind conditions. With the wind speed indicator in the clubhouse whizzing up and down between 19 - 32mph, this was a good thing!

James wisely decided this was not for him after sampling the conditions on the water, and he pulled out before the first start. Jonathan was competitive and lying second in the opening race when he capsized. Following a chest infection he'd been fighting all week, hitting the cold water gave him severe breathing difficulties and he spent the rest of the day in the clubhouse.

Mark and John started all three races. At times the conditions were horrid. One mast was broken and two bent, one of them John's probably due to constant nose-diving in the strongest gusts on the very, very dead runs. He came away with a 4^th and two retirements. Mark sailed really well, was unlucky to lose the first race at the last mark, and finished with two seconds for an overall second place. Even he, along with the event winner, finally pulled out in the last race when conditions got really silly. Mark is now leading the Northern Travellers Series after the first three events.

A good weekend's work.