Laser 2000s at Carsington

Helen Phillips and Mark Henley report

Eleven visiting and nine local boats congregated at Carsington Sailing Club for Round 5 of the Millennium Cup Series. After a short welcome and briefing, the race officer, Roger Kent, having spent all morning praying fruitlessly to the wind gods, postponed the start for an hour, in the hope that ripples would appear on the mirror-like surface of Carsington Water. Half an hour later saw the faintest of ripples and the committee boat making its way onto the lake, followed by a flotilla of Laser 2000s. At the re-scheduled start-time the wind disappeared again, leaving the fleet struggling to regain the shore without the help of the safety boats. The race to the bar for lunch was won by the Bradleys - Trevor and Caroline.

With the racing postponed until mid afternoon, talk over lunch turned to whether or not the race officer was really Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, and had mistakenly shot an albatross early in the morning to bring divine retribution in the form of no wind!

A light and variable wind appeared in the afternoon and we were off! An Olympic triangle course was set for the two afternoon races (the third race being postponed until the Sunday). Both races were characterized by close fleet racing, arguments within some of the boats (matrimonial, father/son), but most of all by Dave and Kate Eccles domination of both races, generally setting the pattern for the weekend.

An excellent barbecue was enjoyed by participants and CSC members alike in the evening sunshine. The weather forecast promised more wind on the Sunday (but not much more).

Sunday morning saw early morning mist and even lighter winds. At a short briefing, race officer Roger promised he had sunshine in one pocket, and wind in the other (must’ve been a BBQ after-effect!). Unfortunately, the only one to make it out of the pocket was sunshine, as the wind was trapped under a bottle of warm beer.

The day was again one of increasingly close competition, where good starts were essential, and made difficult by the wind shifts which turned port-biased lines into starboard-biased lines and back again during the start sequence.

On the down-wind legs, there were significant gains and losses made as the wind filled in then died away again, with leading boats losing up to 10 places before clawing them back on the next leg. Whilst some visitors were left wondering whether they had brought their own private wind shadow along for the weekend, it was consistently good sailing which paid off for Bala SC’s Dave and Kate Eccles, and Carsington’s own Kim Dunstan with Anne Cooper who finished first and second overall respectively. There was close competition at the top of the fleet, with eight boats having a top three finish in at least one race, and only four points separating the boats from 3rd to 7th at the end of the competition.

Engraved crystal glasses were presented by Carsington Sailing Club for 1st to 5th, and single-use cameras presented by Kodak to the junior sailors taking part in the competition.

Special thanks to CSC for hosting an excellent event and in particular Roger Kent for doing an excellent job in getting 6 races started in trying conditions.


Overall result after 6 races (1 discard)

1. Dave & Kate Eccles, 7
2. Kim Dunstan & Anne Cooper,18
3. Peter & Rachel Bolton, 26
4. Andrew & Alice Barraclough, 26