Eric Fisher A Class Memorial Trophy 2017
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- Created on Saturday, 10 June 2017 20:35
- Written by Glenn Dawson
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Saturday 10 June 2017 was the day for this year's Eric Fisher Memorial Regatta. It was a brisk morning, but the sun was shining and the wind was blowing gently from the north east.
9 A Class yachts turned up for the day's sailing. We welcomed Simon Ellis who competed his first A Class regatta sailing the ex-Allan Beer / Ray Bassett Venom. It was expected that the light winds would play into the hands of the Venoms and the Wombat.
Race Officer Warren Rock had us on the water soon after 10.00am. Straight out of the blocks, Glenn Dawson showed a clean pair of heels to the fleet and notched up a few race winds. Before long however, the Wombat started rolling along putting up a solid challenge to the Sword.
Hub Bell's A1 also showed glimpses of former glory with some great speed upwind. The A1 needs a bit of breeze to make her competitive with the larger sail areas of the Venoms and Swords, but the wind didn't co-operate today, only reaching 5 knots or so.
Around lunchtime, the IOM guys turned up to sail. The fleet of 11 boats started their races in between the A Class heats. It was TNT weather and both Edgar Vitte and Craig Taylor had some good results. Racing was tight, and a number of general recalls were had. The wind was gradually fading as the afternoon wore on, so the IOMs didn't get to sail as much as usual, allowing the A's to continue.
Back in the A Class event, the scores were tied with two races to go. Glenn and Graham were locked together and a match race ensued. Glenn managed to get his nose in front and the two A's were covering one another all round the course. At the end of the day, Glenn held off Graham by two points. Jeff Green rounded out the podium, followed by Denton Roberts.
Full results to follow.
Ten Rater Challenge. Champion Lakes 2017
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- Created on Sunday, 21 May 2017 20:04
- Written by Glenn Dawson
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Champion Lakes Ten Rater Challenge 2017.
Today was a wet and squally winter’s day. The sky would be blue for a while with a 6 to 8 knot wind blowing, but then a front would come through and the associated gusts building to 15 knots. After a while, the front would pass, and we were back into the lighter winds again. Luckily, the wind direction was from the south-west, which at Champion Lakes makes for reasonable steady winds without too many shifts.
Sean Wallis came down to be the race officer and he did a really good job. He has clearly been watching the IOM Worlds making rapid changes of course, setting up 4 top marks as well as having the “good start” call off to a tee. He was itching to call a “uniform flag”, but we didn’t give him the opportunity!
Unfortunately only seven skippers were able to attend, with a couple of our regular skippers away. Four Diamonds, a Prizm, a NRW and a Sanga were in the fleet.
Early in the day, Roger Paul started the day in good form, rattling off a number of wins and seconds. Not too far away was Rosco Bennett, making a challenge. Glenn Dawson and Chris Woods were battling in the next group, whilst Denton Roberts, Ian Sherriff and Rob Mews were having really close tussles.
2017 South West Championships and Busselton Cup regatta
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- Created on Monday, 08 May 2017 20:34
- Written by Glenn Dawson
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2017 RSAWA South West Championships and Busselton Cup
IOM skippers in WA spent the weekend of May 6 and 7 down in Busselton for the South-
West Championships and the Busselton Cup. The idea of the two regattas is to encourage skippers who may not consider themselves at the level of highly competitive regatta, but would like to participate in a more relaxed event.
This year, there were 13 in the Championships, and 5 in the Cup on Saturday, and 7 on Sunday. Most of the Perth guys drove down on Friday afternoon and spent the weekend in various locations. It happened to be the weekend of the Busselton Ironman event, so unfortunately, accommodation was at a premium. Thankfully some of the local guys hosted a few of the skippers.
Saturday’s forecast didn’t look all that good, with light south-easterly winds predicted for most of the day. This meant that the winds blew straight across the lake towards the sailing area, making setting a starting line very difficult. The wind really was light, never blowing more than about 5 knots, and fading as the day progressed. Nevertheless, we managed to get 9 Championship and 8 Cup races completed for the day.
Read more: 2017 South West Championships and Busselton Cup regatta