Despite having perfect wind conditions and higher water levels, the continuing weed problem put most sailors off competing for the Ralph Gibson Trophy at The Welland Yacht Club on Sunday.
Five boats started the first race with a nice breeze blowing across the river.
Andy Prior, sailing a full rig Laser made the best start and pulled ahead of James Ramp and Toby Schrauwers in the smaller Laser Radials and Helen Boyd in the Solo. Slightly behind were Geoff Tibbs in a Solo and Richard Stedman in a Comet.
Unusually positions didn’t change during the race with boats try to avoid the large clumps of weed and the strong gusts that began to appear, although Stedman did retire due to the conditions.
Schrauwers capsized just short of the finish line but managed to right the boat quickly and crossed the line in fourth spot.
For race two, Boyd and Schrauwers decided not to compete but Jorrit Schrauwers joined in another Solo.
With the cross wind increasing, Prior and Schrauwers got perfect starts and remained neck and neck for the first leg before Prior gradually pulled out a lead to take a comfortable win. Schrauwers almost capsized while trying to remove weed from his rudder and had to sail the remainder of the race with a boat half full of water. He looked well placed for second place until the final mark rounding when youngster Ramp gained ground rapidly and made the finish line in one tack to finish 100 metres ahead to take second place.
Ramp was unable to sail the last race, which left Prior in an uncatchable position but he and the Schrauwers’ all sailed.
A slightly longer course was set in the hope of finding water that wasn’t clogged by weed. Jorrit Schrauwers got the perfect start and held a lead for most of the upwind leg before weed slowed him down to allow Prior to overtake and pull out a lead and take first spot.
That gave Prior the trophy with three first places. Ramp was second, Jorrit Schrauwers third, Toby Schrauwers fourth, Boyd fifth, Tibbs sixth and Stedman seventh.
