Sunday saw the opening races of the 2023 Welland Yacht Club sailing season for the Robert Creek Shield.
The first day’s competitive sailing was blessed with sunshine and a breeze strong enough to keep the sailors on their toes and work off some of the rustiness but not too strong to deter putting on the water.
Seven boats came to the start and it was Scourfield in the Solo who judged the time right on the short beat to number 1 buoy, closely followed by Keiron Powell in the Laser full rig, who gained the inside right of way at the rounding mark to take the lead.
He was followed by Scourfield, Alistair Mitchell in the Laser Radial rig, Gail Follington and Richard Stedman, both in Comet dinghys, then, tucked in behind, Helen Boyd in the Solo and Eric Murray in his Mirror dinghy, as the fleet turned to run before the wind to number 4 buoy.
This remained the order rounding the 4 buoy and it was Powell and Scourfield who were in close proximity all the way back, cross tacking as the wind picked up.
Follington had some gear failure in her Comet which meant her retirement in this race and ultimately the whole day.
The second lap followed the same order and Powell had some issues with his boat going head to wind and losing ground to Scourfield but this was short lived as Powell once again passed him and just got in front to cross the line first.
Scourfield managed to capsize the Solo within 50 yards of the finish line but managed to right it quickly to cross second ahead of Mitchell in the laser.
The first three boats on handicap-corrected time all finished within 45 seconds of each other, with Scourfield first Mitchell second and Powell third.
The start order of race two was a copy of the first race but Scourfield managed to get round the number 1 buoy first this time followed by Powell and Mitchell, Boyd, Stedman and Murray.
With the breeze building and planing conditions, it was the Laser of Powell off the wind that rounded 4 buoy in first place, followed by Scourfield who gained inside overlap on Mitchell for the tight reach back which provided some muscle stretching leaning out.
Powell and Scourfield pulled away and at number 1 buoy it was close until once again Scourfield managed to capsize and retire which allowed Mitchell to take advantage to slip through followed by Stedman and Boyd.
This was the order of finishing after the second lap and Mitchell had hung on to Powell sufficiently to take first place on corrected time, Powell second and Stedman in the new Comet extra in third place, followed by Boyd in the Solo.
After lunch it was the last race of the day and with a number of helms retiring, there were only four boats that made the start line.
Again it was Powell who got away from Boyd in the Solo, followed by Stedman and Murray.
The pattern of the first two races continued, with Stedman capsizing and christening his new boat in the Welland, which resulted in the finishing order of Powell, Boyd, Stedman and Murray, but on handicap times it was Powell first, Boyd second and Murray in third place.
Overall: 1st Powell 6pts, 2nd Mitchell 11pts, 3rd Stedman 11 pts (on countback), 4th Boyd 12pts, 5th Murray 13pts.
pAnyone wanting to find out more about sailing should contact the club via email [email protected]
