The duo of Neal Tack and Rebecca Slator grabbed two wins en-route to lifting Welland Yacht Club’s Lowland Trophy Regatta on Sunday.
Wall-to-wall sunshine was the order of the day for the competitors, but with this came a distinct lack of wind and a lot of weed on the river – making for very challenging conditions.
The Lowland Trophy historically has a ‘novelty element’ and for the first race this was the fact that the course was not published prior to the race.
Crews had to work this out on the water via cryptic clues and, given the speed the boats were travelling at, this proved quite easy.
Indeed, as boats caught one of the few gusts of wind they were able to pull away before being caught up by the others.
Newcomer Richard Holland and son Bradley struggled with the conditions and eventually had to retire but the rest of the fleet crept around the course.
The race was shortened to one lap with Alan Cox (Laser) finishing ahead of Tack and Slater (Graduate), who were followed closely by Richard Stedman (Laser) and Andy Agar (OK), with Katie Follington a little distance behind.
After handicaps were applied the results saw Cox win ahead of Tack-Slator, with Agar third, Stedman fourth and Follington fifth.
The wind hadn’t improved for the second race and the fleet had dropped to just four boats. The novelty element was this time a chicane being added for boats to negotiate on downwind legs.
A similar pattern emerged, but this time the fleet stuck closer together.
Cox finished first again, with Tack/Slator and the rest of the fleet only a short distance behind.
This gave Tack/Slator the victory from Cox in second once handicaps were applied – leaving it all to play for in the last race.
Only those two boats contested the last race, and it followed the same route as the previous one, with Cox finishing shortly ahead of Tack/Slator.
Cox’s lead wasn’t enough to break the handicap, with the race and the trophy going to Neal Tack and Rebecca Slator.
If you would like to experience sailing for yourselves, the the club is holding an open day on Sunday, July 11.
