|
Easter Regatta 2005
Light easterly force 2 winds prevailed throughout the weekend of the Bala Sailing Club Easter Regatta, providing testing conditions and demanding high concentration levels. The competitors were divided into a main fleet, which sailed a conventional course, and an asymmetric fleet, which sailed an upwind/downwind course. The duty officers efficiently completed 3 races on the Saturday, when in the main fleet Ralph Jones and Dan Partington, both of Bala, resumed their close competition, seen in the Blaze Nationals of 2004 at Mengeham Rythe in which they had finished in 4th and 5th places respectively. Dan Partington took the first two races with Ralph Jones winning the third race. On Sunday, the competition between these two boats was very close, with Ralph getting early leads only to be caught later by Dan on the last windward leg. John Saunders and Paul Spooner in their Flying 15 showed improved technique in light winds to constantly harry and challenge the Blazes. A feature of the weekend was to observe the skilful technique displayed by M. Raine and J. Hill in their National 12, gaining third place overall In the asymmetric fleet, the RS400 of Steve and Bernie Bales and the Laser 2000 of Dave and Kate Eccles, while obviously not experiencing close racing on the water, sailed to a similar high standard to be very closely matched on corrected time. Both boats profited from sailing in clear airs and the results tended to confirm the accuracy of their current yardstick ratings. Over the weekend, Steve and Bernie Bales gained four first places and two seconds while Dave and Kate Eccles gained two first places and four seconds. Jonathan Smith and his inexperienced crew, ‘Blakey’, came third despite a hilarious capsize to windward in the last race. Fast Handicap Asymmetric |
Unless otherwise stated all photographs, videos, drawings, graphics and
articles on this site are the sole copyright of Bala Sailing Club © 2000-2008