The race for glory in Welland Yacht Club’s personal handicap series remains wide open after three competitive rounds on Sunday.
The morning’s race started under a darkened sky with a reasonable breeze blowing.
All eight boats got away cleanly from the start following some sizeable gusts, with the faster trio of Paul Burton, Andy Prior and Tom Bell pulling out an early lead.
Burton, in the fastest boat, needed to be ahead, while Prior and Bell – on equal handicaps and identical boats – were racing each other for actual race position.
On the return back from the first leg, a visiting Witham duo managed a capsize and had to retire while bailing the boat.
At the end, with the handicaps applied, only 37 seconds covered the top four with Martin Cook finishing first ahead of Bell (second), Prior (third) and Burton (fourth).
With clearer skies for the afternoon races, four more competitors joined the rest on the start line.
With three boats right on the line at the start an unfortunate Burton found himself over at the start and had to do penalty turns.
Again, the lead pack of Burton, Bell and Prior broke away, leaving the rest of the field to try and keep close enough to be in with a shout of a win once the handicaps have been applied.
This time 1.30mins covered the top four as Bell won from Prior (second), Phil Robinson (third) and Burton (fourth).
The last race of the day saw 11 boats get away cleanly. The same pattern emerged again, as the boats spread out after rounding the first mark.
Bell won again to make it two wins from three on the day, ahead of Prior (second), Burton (third) and Ros Nickols (fourth).
This Sunday sees the final three races of the series.
- The end of season social is on Saturday, November 12 (7pm).
