A sunny but very windy Saturday welcomed the visiting Laser 2000 sailors, some from as far as Loch Venacher in Scotland for their first visit to Northampton SC and Pitsford Reservoir at the weekend.

After a ‘firm briefing’ by the race officer the fleet having been made very aware of the Force 5-6 shifty winds tracking like ‘cats paws’ across the water and set out for race one.

Most of the fleet set off from the shore, a few returned quickly with the remaining upright boats making it to the start line. Once underway a few more decided that it wasn’t for them and also returned to the shore to watch a high wind sailing display by the remaining four to eight boats. Matt Sargent with his locally borrowed crew for the weekend Tracy Harris showed how it’s done with Elizabeth and Tim Filmore second. Sargent and Harris continued to show the fleet the way round the course for the next two races with Helen and Andrew Phillips second in race two, Andy and Karen Baldwin second in race three.

Sunday was a different story from the ‘more white horses than a Spanish riding school’ Saturday with very light winds across the reservoir and all the fleet taking to the water Sargent and Harris could only manage a best score of fourth with the three races sailed each being won by different crews.

Race four saw John and Pauline Cox take the gun closely followed by Dave and Kate Eccles in what proved to be the best wind of the day. Race five followed in a little less wind with Andy and Mark Baldwin winning and Andy and Alice Barraclough taking second place. After a short lunch break race six got underway in possibly even less and even more shifty wind, the Barracloughs won this race with the Team McDonald Family finally coming through in sescond place (they had been at the front at some stage in all three of Sunday’s races).

Overall Results

1st ‘Gunner No.1’ 21558 Matt Sargent and Tracy Harris Royal Artillery YC 12pts

2nd ‘Buzz B’ 21462 Andy and Karen/Mark Baldwin Grafham Water SC 17pts

3rd ‘Screwdriver’ 21033 Helen and Andrew Phillips Cardiff Bay YC 20pts

4th ‘Wild Kids’ 2547 Andrew and Alice Barraclough Rickmansworth SC 23pts