RC Laser Winter Series event 4 at Medway Yacht Club
by Jamie Blair 11 Jan 05:54 AEDT 9 January 2022
Round 4 saw bright sunshine and again a SSW wind that was ranging between 14 and 18 knots. 13 sailors readied themselves with B rig the sail of choice.
Our course today was the same as last week with the beat subject to wind split near the windward mark. Some of the early races it was evident that Adrian Tomlinson understood how to make this pay.
We adopted the race format of two triangles and a sausage arrangement. This prolonged the race duration but gave the fleet a chance to separate and the finish team some breathing space.
Adrian Tomlinson dominated the first half of the morning with 5 wins out of six! Starting was ultra-important to get clear air and some space. The course was a bit skewed so a lot of the fleet soon found themselves on the port layline, providing an inevitable bundle at the windward mark.
Spencer Pope, one of our newcomers started well and after race 3 was lying in 5th overall. Jon Moon after a bad start climbed from 9th to 4th by race 5. Spencer’s early showing was not sustained.
At the coffee break after race 6 Adrian had pulled out a 10-point lead with Paul Woodward and Jamie Blair battling out for 2nd. Mid fleet was very tight with 6 points separating 6 boats.
Adrian continued his winning formula until the last race but with discards of a 5th and a 2nd our best scoring win of 9 points sealed the day. Jamie put in some good results after the break making the gap between him and Paul 12 points.
Round 4 showed that we need to find a way of sailing as fast as Adrian and coping with a bigger super competitive fleet at Barton’s Point.
We look forward to the next round on Sunday 16th January, weather and Covid permitting.
Round 4 Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 | R8 | R9 | R10 | R11 | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 30 | Adrian Tomlinson | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ?2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ?5 | 9 |
| 2nd | 51 | Jamie Blair | 3 | 3 | 4 | ?9 | 3 | 1 | ?6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 22 |
| 3rd | 528 | Paul Woodward | 2 | 2 | 2 | ?11 | 8 | 5 | 2 | (DNF) | 4 | 5 | 4 | 34 |
| 4th | 45 | Tim Townsend | 4 | 5 | 7 | ?8 | ?11 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 36 |
| 5th | 4 | Tony Alexander | 9 | 4 | (DNC) | 2 | 5 | (DNF) | 7 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 2 | 50 |
| 6th | 3 | Mark Penny | 7 | 6 | ?10 | 4 | 6 | 6 | ?8 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 53 |
| 7th | 529 | Mike Brand | 6 | ?10 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 8 | ?10 | 56 |
| 8th | 84 | Jon Moon | ?11 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | (DNF) | 4 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 7 | 56 |
| 9th | 62 | Spencer Pope | 5 | 11 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 8 | (DNF) | (DNF) | 7 | 6 | 3 | 64 |
| 10th | 613 | Andrew Nicholls | 8 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 7 | 9 | ?12 | 8 | (DNF) | 4 | 11 | 72 |
| 11th | 32 | Roger Gibb | 10 | 8 | 9 | 6 | (DNF) | 4 | 9 | (DNF) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 88 |
| 12th | 928 | Brian Lev’y | 12 | 12 | 11 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 10 | (DNF) | (DNF) | 12 | 9 | 93 |
| 13th | 76 | Bob Woolford | 13 | (DNF) | (DNC) | DNC | DNC | DNC | 11 | DNF | DNF | 9 | 12 | 115 |
