Eight boats took to the river on Sunday for the conclusion of Welland Yacht Club’s Autumn Points Series.
With a course set after the reach to keep the helms on their toes, it was going to include plenty of tacking for the boats in race one.
It was Mark Scourfield in the Solo, followed by Andy Prior in the full rig Laser and Andy Agar in the OK who judged this best and were first away in some clear wind, however, by the first corner Prior had taken the lead, leaving Scourfield, Agar and Keiron Powell (full rig Laser) to battle it out.
The Laser Radial of Alistair Mitchell, Mark Holland and Alan Cox meanwhile were having their own close battle throughout the race.
On the last beat to number 4 Powell had a mishap and capsized which ended his race as it took him time to right it and let Agar into third place.
Finishing order on the water was Prior, Scourfield and Agar, however after handicaps were applied Mitchell beat Cox by two seconds to claim a third place.
The course was changed for the second race and a number 5 buoy was dropped in which meant a longer first beat as the wind built steadily as forecast.
Again it was important to get the best start and it was Prior, Cox, Agar, Scourfield and, to windward, Tack and Slator who were away.
The long beat to the new mark began and Prior was ahead of Scourfield with Agar and Powell behind.
As the wind started to increase it claimed a couple of victims in the Laser Radial fleet with both Cox and Holland capsizing, making sure the safety boat was kept busy.
Rounding one of the buoys, Powell had hit the mark, which meant he had to do the penalty turns, which is not easy in a strengthening breeze and this lost him ground on the leading boats.
The finishing order was Prior, Scourfield, Agar and Powell and after handicaps applied, it was a close result with Scourfield who took first place by only seven seconds from Prior, with Mitchell finishing third.
The last race in the series started as the wind was still gusting in places which made for some to call it a day.
Again all judged the start of well.
Prior took the lead into the tacking straight but got caught out and capsized, allowing Scourfield to sail through followed by the rest of the boats before he was able to right the boat.
On the long beat to number 5, Scourfield was round first, followed by Agar and Prior who had managed to fight his way through to third in pursuit.
Scourfield managed to hold off Prior in the beat to 4 buoy, however on the run back Prior, despite nearly capsizing again, managed to take the lead back to the finish line.
Although crossing the line first, he hadn’t pulled out enough time between him and Scourfield, so Scourfield took the win, with Prior second and Cox third.
Results of the Autumn Points Series: 1st Mark Scourfield 3 points, 2nd Andy Prior 5 points, 3rd Alan Cox 9 points.
