The in-form Andy Prior picked up two wins in differing competitions at Welland Yacht Club on Sunday.
Round four of the Sunday Points Series was the first race of the day, contested with a fresh breeze – but for the first time in a while in a river free from weeds.
Seven boats took to the line, but by the off a number were already upside down. Paul Burton (Solo) and Andy Prior (full rig Laser) were matching each other for the first couple of 100 yards, but when Burton decided to go around the back of Prior’s boat instead of tacking with him, his boat was slowed as the centreboard caught the bottom.
This allowed Prior to pull out a slight lead by the time they rounded the top mark – and over the next lap and a half he managed to extend this lead a little more to finish a couple of minutes ahead of Burton.
However, once boat handicaps were applied this became much closer with Prior winning by only nine seconds.
Gradually all the other boats retired, most after capsizes, but junior Samuel Willerton kept going in his little Optimist and, despite a capsize and a boat full of water, he managed to finish the race to take a well-deserved third place.
The afternoon saw the start of the Personal Handicap series, where boat crews – as well as the boats – have handicaps applied to them.
The race started similarly to the morning race despite there only being four entries.
However, instead of going slower with the Radial rig, Prior was able to make better use of the strong wind and quickly pulled out a comfortable buffer from Burton, which he kept until the end.
Junior Willerton was again battling on in the little Optimist and at one point was ahead of the much faster Phanton of Gerri Van Haren, who was struggling to stay upright.
But as the race progressed, he took a lot of water over the side of his boat which made steering very hard. This allowed Van Haren take third spot, but Willerton hung on to finish the course to take fourth.
With the wind increasing and the helms wanting to take part, the OOD made the decision not to hold the third race of the day.
