A total of 59 boats took part in the Phoenix Marine-sponsored Laser Masters Inland Championship at Rutland SC over the weekend of the 9-10 September.

Racing on the warm bright Saturday took place in an average Force 3 wind shifting between east and south-east. Race 1 took three attempts to start as the wind shifted to produce a heavily biased port biased line resulting on the fleet piling up at the pin end. The sailing required careful consideration of the wind shifts with such large changes in wind direction. Philip King read the shifts for the first two races better than the rest to score two firsts but went back down the fleet in the third race with a 15th place. Steve Restall won this race. Subsequent places in Race 1 were 2nd Clive Eplett, 3rd Alan Davis, In Race 2 Davis was 2nd with Paul Williamson (Staunton Harold) 3rd and in Race 3 David Binding & Phil Bevan were 2nd & 3rd respectively.

By the end of Saturday, Davis had put together a consistent set of results, all within the top four places that placed him in first place. However, victory for Davis was only certain at this point if there was no discard. There was every chance with King’s performance the title could be lost.

In the Radial fleet, Ian Rawet (Grafham) was leading the pack and finishing in the middle of the combined fleet by the end of Saturday. As the Radials were being disadvantaged by the combined starts in 2007 they will have their own start and the fleet will be supplemented by the Great Grandmasters, the same as for the Euromasters events.

On Sunday morning a mist over the water greeted the sailors and it took a couple of hours for it to clear and very little wind. It looked as though Davis’ prayers had been answered. However, by 1245 the wind had picked up to near the minimum requirements and the fleet elected to go afloat to sail the discard. Prior to the start, the fleet started to congregate at the pin end but the wind shifted to such a degree that the committee boat end became the highly favoured place to start by the time the gun was sounded. Davis once again kept within the top group but King had his worse result with a retirement from the race. Finishing order for Race 4 was 1st Alan Bishop, 2nd Colin Dutton (Frensham Pond) and 3rd Davis. With 8 points Davis won the standard rig from Restall with 12 and Bevan with 15 points. In the Radial fleet Richard Langford came first, 10 points clear of his nearest rival, Robin Jones.

Overall Results
Master
1st Alan Davis (1st o/a) Oxford
2nd Steve Restall (2nd o/a) Downs
3rd Clive Eplett (5th o/a) Frensham Pond
Apprentice Master
1st Phil Bevan (3rd o/a) Grafham
2nd Steve Tylecote (8th o/a) Rutland
3rd Alan Bishop (11th o/a) Fishers Green
Grandmaster
1st Philip King (4th o/a) Oxford
2nd David Binding (7th o/a) Weirwood
3rd Nick Korving (14th o/a) Point YC Durban
Great Grandmaster
1st Bill Watson (26th o/a) Blithfield
2nd Barrie Watson (22nd o/a) Hykeham
Lady
1st Debbie Phillips (20th o/a) Blithfield
2nd Selina Ramm (30th o/a) Oxford
Radial
1st Richard Langford Rutland
2nd Robin Jones
3rd Lesley Hotchin Oxford