Numbers were heavily depleted for Sunday’s racing at Welland Yacht Club with a number of members taking part in the Three Rivers race – but those in attendance enjoyed a trio of exciting battles on the water.
The first two races of the day were pursuit races, where handicaps are decided prior to the start and are used to calculate individual start times, with the finish of the race being 50 minutes after the first boats start.
Eric Murray was first off, some 9.30mins ahead of Andy Agar in an OK, who in turn was ten seconds ahead of Andy Prior (laser) and Gerri van Haren, with crew Manasa Tamani, in a wayfarer.
Murray struggled a little with the wind from the clubhouse to bouy one and failed to make the most of his head start, which meant Prior – who got ahead of Agar on the first short beat – quickly made ground.
The long run to buoy four was uneventful, but shortly after the wayfarer of van Haren and crew capsized and, due to an absence of ‘bungs’, it quickly filled up with water.
With the WYC rescue boat on hand, the boat was towed safely back to base – but it meant the race was over for the crew.
While this was happening both Prior (first) and Agar (second) overtook Murray and remained in this position until the finish was signalled.
By the start of the second race van Haren was still pumping water out of the wayfarer, so only three boats took to the starting line.
Murray got a good start and was able to pull out a good advantage by the time Agar, closely followed by Prior, got started.
Race one winner Prior made the most of the first beat and managed to round buoy one just head of Agar after which both boats held this position for the rest of the race.
However, it took 30 minutes before both boats were able to catch and overtake Murray.
By the dying minutes of the race Prior had pulled out a good lead, but having mistakenly thought that the race time was up headed back to the clubhouse only to discover that there were two minutes to go.
That gave Agar the win, with Prior having to settle for second ahead of Murray.
Race three was a conventional race, with both Murray and Prior lining up on the favoured port side.
However, Agar tried a clever starboard end start – allowing him to cross ahead of the two other boats.
Prior then accelerated towards the start line with seconds to go and, after a closely fought first battle, Prior did manage to round buoy one first.
Although Agar stayed in contention throughout the race, he never caught his rival – meaning Prior took the race win from Agar, with Murray again third.
- Anyone wanting to find out more about sailing should contact the club via email at [email protected] and somebody will get back to you.
