Nine boats from Welland Yacht Club came to the start line for the fifth race in the Munson Cup series on Easter Sunday.
The wind coming from the north meant a short beat to number one buoy and some interesting close quarter sailing and a good start needed.
It was Keiron Powell in the Laser, who gained inside rights at the buoy, over Scourfield in the Solo, to round first and facing the run through the rest of the boats beating to the buoy often with right of way.
Third was Andy Prior, sailing with grandson Harry Jackson in the Lark dinghy, followed by Alan Chapman and Alan Cox (both full rig Lasers), Andy Agar (OK), Helen Boyd (Solo), Richard Stedman (Comet) and the Wayfarer helmed by William Stabler and crew dad Adam.
Powell managed to pick up some breeze and stretched out his lead that was never challenged.
However, behind there was some close racing, rounding four buoy on the gybe. Scourfield just held off the challenge of Chapman, Cox and the Lark of Prior and Jackson.
The tight reach back provided some close luffing battles and the Lark managed to pass both Lasers and Scourfield on Chilvers Corner on the beat back. By this time Powell was nearly out of sight in the lead.
As the second lap started and the wind built marginally, boats were spreading out behind Prior and Jackson, Cox, Scourfield, Chapman, Agar, Boyd and Stedman with the Stablers.
After nearly an hour’s sailing, it was Powell who crossed the line first, four minutes ahead of Cox, followed by Prior and Jackson, then with two seconds separating them, it was Scourfield pipping Chapman on the line, followed by Agar, Boyd, Stedman and the Stablers.
Once handicaps were applied it was Powell in first, 2nd Cox, 3rd Scourfield, 4th Agar, 5th Stedman, 6th Chapman, 7th Prior and Jackson, 8th Boyd and 9th Stablers.
The final race of the series started with the sky clearing and the wind starting to build.
All boats took to the water and it was Agar who judged it perfectly and went ahead on a port tack lift that took him to the buoy first.
He was closely followed by Scourfield, who had to allow Powell through on the inside. Followed was Prior and Jackson, Cox and Chapman.
On the run down the river again the boats behind took advantage of the wind filling in from the back and made some gains on the front three.
With the wind varying in direction and strength, Powell took the lead from Agar and Scourfield but a capsize awaited him just beyond Shelly’s Bush Corner as he went over to windward.
This allowed Agar and Scourfield to continue to four buoy and with Scourfield getting inside overlap rights at the buoy-gybing, he rounded first, Agar second and Prior and Jackson third.
The tight reach and beat back enabled the Lark to pull through to first and with Scourfield, Cox and Chapman locked in a tacking duel, they pulled away.
With the wind increasing, the race was shorter time-wise and with Powell righting his boat and making his way through the fleet.
It was a tight finish when the handicaps were applied afterwards.
Agar was first, Scourfield 2nd, Powell 3rd, Cox 4th, Prior and Jackson 5th, Chapman 6th, Stedman 7th and Boyd 8th.
Prior was the overall winner with four points, Powell 2nd eight points and Cox and Scourfield tied for third with ten points.
There were only six boats at the start of the Afternoon Points race as others had Easter commitments. With the wind and sunshine coming together, it was the best conditions of the day. It was still tricky getting around one buoy at the start and there was a change of course down to five buoy using the full length of the river.
It was the Lark of Prior and Jackson who rounded first, followed by Cox, Agar, Boyd, Scourfield and Stedman close behind.
With the wind filling in from the back, the boats bunched up before rounding Chilvers Corner but once round, the lead boats were able to pull away.
With a short race of just over 30 minutes, it was going to be a close finish on handicap times and so it proved, with all six boats finishing within one minute of each other on corrected time.
The Lark of Prior and Jackson crossed first, just ahead of Cox, Agar, Scourfield, Boyd and Stedman. After handicaps were applied it was Cox in first, Agar 2nd, Prior and Jackson in 3rd, Scourfield 4th, Stedman 5th and Boyd in 6th but only seconds split some of these positions.
