Mark Scourfield claimed overall glory in Welland Yacht Club’s Carl Bilbie Pursuit Regatta on Sunday.
He was the top performer over two races on a very windy day in Spalding, winning the first race and placing second in the other to edge Mark Holland and Monika Nowak into the runners-up position.
Some five boats took to the start of race one, with a number of the club’s regular racers not in attendance.
With pursuit racing, the class handicap is applied at the start to give each class of boat different start times.
The theory being that, at the end of the allotted race duration, all boats should be together on the water.
New member Eric Murray (in a Mirror dinghy) was first way in the 50-minute opener, followed 8.35mins later Richard Stedman (Laser Radial).
Next up at 8.45mins was Scourfield (Solo), before Holland and crew Nowak (RS Vision) at 8.55mins then finally, at 9.15mins Clive Herd (Streaker).
The wind had started to pick up further as the boats tacked their way to the windward mark.
Soon Scourfield and Herd had passed those ahead of them and were pulling out a considerable lead over the following boats.
As the back three approached the windward mark, the Holland/Nowak combination had moved into third place, only to slip back to last on the run downwind.
It remained tight at the top as the race neared its conclusion, but Scoufield was just clear of Herd – with the pair of them still commanding a decent lead over the rest as they finished in first and second respectively.
Behind them, Stedman broached and ended up in the water, allowing Holland-Nowak to pass Murray and claim third position.
After a short break and with the wind still getting stronger, Stedman elected not to take part in race two and helped man the safety boat – reducing the field to just four boats.
The start saw the field released in the same order, but Herd soon elected to retire having only just returned to sailing following months of recuperation.
Scourfield was first around the mark, shortly followed by Holland-Nowak, but the leader found himself in the water following a broach.
Then, with two minutes to go, Holland and Nowak found themselves in the water. They decided to stay in the water until the 50 minutes was up, with the wind blowing them down river towards the clubhouse.
Scourfield passed Murray to take second, but had to settle for second behind the duo in the water. That was enough for first overall, however, as he claimed the Carl Bilbie crown.
