Sunday was the Richard Glenn Challenge Bowl, the last regatta of the season at Welland Yacht Club.
Although the forecast gave little hope of much wind, conditions were slightly better than forecast and a full day’s racing took place.
With the light wind blowing across the river, it was a reaching start where the timing was crucial and a small group containing Mark Scourfield (Solo), Andy Prior and Harry Jackson (Lark), Helen Boyd (Solo) and Alan Cox (Laser) got away first, despite have to negotiate Alan Chapman’s Laser which was sailing down the line. The remaining nine boats formed the chasing pack.
As the boats worked their way up river Prior/Jackson and Scourfield swapped the lead a number of times but it was the quicker Lark that rounded the top mark first, Boyd rounded third with James Ramp catching in his Laser.
In the light and fickle wind, the Lark pulled out a lead but the size of this varied throughout the race. As it came to the final mark it looked like the gap was big enough to claim the win despite the boat’s high handicap, but Scourfield closed the gap to take the win by 30 seconds on handicap. Prior and Jackson were second with Boyd third.
The second race saw slightly more wind but from a similar direction, but this time Prior and Jackson circled back to the leeward end of the line and got a flyer giving them clear air from the chasing pack. Although Scourfield got a good start he quickly got caught up with the pack and lost time.
Gerri van Haren in the larger Phantom began moving through the fleet and soon moved to second place chasing down the Lark.
Despite this, by the end of the first lap Prior and Jackson had built up a comfortable lead and rounded the bottom mark comfortably ahead, by the time the chasing pack arrived the wind had dropped, making negotiating it very difficult.
This was made worse for Scourfield as he managed to get entangled in a fisherman’s line, slowing him down considerably and causing him to hit the mark which required penalty turns.
On the second lap Prior/Jackson pulled out the lead further to take a comfortable win on corrected time but although van Haren crossed the line second, he dropped back to sixth once handicaps were applied.
Scourfield had worked his way back through the fleet and crossed the line fourth just behind the Lasers of Cox and Ramp but once handicaps were applied, he secured a valuable second place from Cox, Ramp and Boyd.
With a first and a second each, all was to play in the final race for Scourfield and Prior/Jackson.
The wind had dropped off noticeably but as with previous races both Scourfield and the Prior/Jackson boat got good starts with the later gradually moving ahead on the first downwind leg.
This time however the second Lark of Paul and Emma Maguire was also in contention having made an excellent start fighting their way through a ten abreast field to move up to third.
The wind continued to drop in strength and change directions on numerous occasions.
The first lap took the leaders just over 20 minutes causing the OOD to consider shortening the course to one lap but decided to send them for a second lap.
At various points in the race the Prior/Jackson Lark pulled out a sufficient lead to win the race but each time Scourfield closed the gap, especially during the final upwind leg.
Although Prior/Jackson crossed the line first Scourfield took a deserved win from Prior/Jackson.
An ever-improving Ramp was third, with Stedman in his Comet fourth.
Overall this gave Scourfield the regatta win with Prior/Jackson second and Ramp third.
Full results were: 1st Mark Scourfield, Solo, 2nd Andy Prior/Harry Jackson, Lark, 3rd James Ramp, Laser, 4th Helen Boyd, Solo, 5th Richard Stedman, Comet, 6th Alan Cox, Laser, 7th Gerrit van Haren, Phantom, 8th Andy Agar, OK, 9th Alan Chapman, Laser, 10th Geoff Tibbs, Solo, 11th, Paul and Emma McGuire, Lark.
Next Sunday the club’s Frostbite series starts and continues until Boxing Day.
