Massacre Pursuit Race 2008

With dire warnings of the imminent arrival of the "storm of the year" Bala lake appeared to be on another planet at 9.00am on Sunday 9th March. However for the 26 entrants of Bala's annual Massacre Pursuit Race, the club's first event of 2008, life was about to change!

Under overcast skies with the occasional burst of sunshine and a pleasant force 3, the first entrants set sail at midday for the start of their 3 hour marathon around a figure of eight course. Ken Hull (PRO for the day) set a beat of about a mile followed by two long downwind legs and a short two-sailer, that was to prove to be a test of nerve for all competitors as this meant a minimum of two gybes every lap. Just under an hour into the race the wind veered 30 degrees, closer to the optimal Southwesterly (straight down the lake) and increased fairly dramatically, at times reaching a very exciting 30mph. Predictably this increased the workload of the ever present rescue crews and at one point 6 boats were capsized at the same time.

The conditions dictated a steady stream of retirements as the race went on, due to a mixture of exhaustion, cold and inevitable gear failure which included the dramatic shredding of a 49er mainsail - ouch!!! To say nothing of one helm, who shall remain nameless, who thought it was the perfect day to leave his bouyancy aid in the boot of his car (only realising it was missing as he reached the windward mark for the 4th time) and another who lost one of his brand new sailing boots following a lengthy capsize.

Thankfully the winds eased briefly as the race entered it's final hour, but by then the wrath of Llyn Tegid had been roused and large rolling waves made the high speed downwind legs even more testing. However, 5 boats survived the ordeal and went on to receive the end of race signal.

Now in normal racing just one mistake often makes all the difference, but to make no major errors of judgement in 3 hours of racing in such conditions, demands recognition of some very good sailing by those crews. The overall winners were Matt Briggs and Rob Kenna of Blithfield SC in a stunning Merlin Rocket, family Hitchman, Wil and Wendy, of Bala SC finished in 2nd place in a Laser 2000, followed by Miles Thomas on his first outing as a Bala member sailing a Solo.  A GP14 sailed by Peter Fisk and Peter Fisk, also from Bala SC came 4th and Lewis Kneale, Chester SC in a Laser Radial was 5th.

Results