SB3 mid-summers continue

Dan Griffey reports from the Royal Southern's series for the Laser keelboat

With the biggest turnout of the season so far, 23 boats lined up for the second weekend of racing in the Henri Lloyd sponsored SB3 midsummer champs organised by Royal Southern YC.

Event leader John Hanson (Turbo Services Int) were on the charge to carry on from where they left off in event 1, but with an increased fleet size and Nationals runner up Russell Peters (Tacktick/Proctor Winning Masts) on the scene, nothing was guaranteed.

A big dose of light winds, huge shifts and strong tides was on the menu for Saturday’s three races. Despite this Russell Peters showed his form of 2002 with two bullets in the bag for the day, a fourth in the last race bringing him home as overnight leader. West Country visitor Rich Beaman held off the charging fleet to secure his first place in race 3.

Solid performances from Team Turbo and Doollali (Michael O’Donnell) kept things tight in the middle order.

Sunday looked to bring more of the same with the first start sequence being enjoyed by the drifting boats in no wind. Fortunately the forecast came good and as the AP was raised a steady 12 knots appeared on the horizon to vary the conditions for the fleet.
Visiting from Northern Ireland, ‘Dr’ Dave Cheyne led home the fleet in the first race which saw much place changing and tight racing throughout the fleet.

An incident free weekend for all was on the cards until Race 2 kicked off, a line of port tack chargers approached a top mark suffering some strong tide and one by one the fleet parked on the mark, amidst an air of gentle encouragement from all sailors, the lucky few on starboard rounded leaving the mêlée to sort itself. Michael Ewart Smith found the speed he had been showing in Seaview to win ahead of Team Turbo, who were on the hunt for their midsummer title.

In an increasing breeze Russell Peters took Race 3 line honours and the event title, closely followed by John Hanson (Turbo Services Int) who secured the Midsummer Championships and now look favourites for the Henri Lloyd Eurocup, with only the Falmouth Laser SB3 Nationals (12/13/14 Sept) remaining.

Attention now turns to Cowes Week where the Laser SB3 enjoys a class start and Solent mark racing, testing sailing and navigational skills - always a challenge with the large dose of Après Sail on offer!