Andy Prior was back on winning form at Welland Yacht Club on Sunday as he claimed the Flag Officer’s Cup amid tricky conditions.
The competition had to be sailed with almost no wind – which reduced the fleet down to seven brave competitors.
Indeed, officer of the day Paul Wilson set a very short course for race one, but even that had to be shortened due to the time it was taking to complete.
With small amounts of wind filling in from the back of the course, all of the competitors bunched up close and, by the time they reached the bottom mark, even the smaller Toppers were still in close contention.
However, heading upwind soon split the fleet with the Lasers of Tom Bell, Prior and Gail Follington able to pull out a small lead from the smaller boats.
Ever the opportunist, Prior was able to capitalize on this and finished the long and slow race some 20 seconds ahead of Bell, who in turn finished 11 minutes clear of Gail Follington who had dropped back into the fleet by then.
Brian Cobb came in next, but was to drop to sixth once boat handicaps were applied.
Neal Tack and Rebecca Slator came in fourth, followed closely by junior Katie Follington (Topper), who was able to move up to a very impressive third place on handicap ahead of Tack and Slator.
Junior Rosey Willerton kept in contention to finish seventh.
The second race started with slightly more wind, so a longer course was set with the boats having to do two laps instead of the one in the first race.
To start with the wind was consistent, which allowed Prior to open up a short lead on the beat from Bell and then Cobb, which was maintained for the first lap.
By lap two the wind had dropped and changed direction, meaning the boats ended up taking both up and down the river – making for another long race, so much so that many boats retired.
Prior was able to keep his lead for the rest of the race finishing ahead of Bell with Cobb some distance behind.
Katie Follington persevered to come in fourth and was the last finisher.
The wind continued to drop, so the third race was cancelled – leaving Prior, with two first places, to take the overall trophy.
Bell’s pair of runners-up finishes earned him second overall, while Katie Follington secured a well-deserved third overall and the trophy for first junior.
Cobb took fourth spot with Gail Follington fifth, Tack and Slator sixth and Rosey Willerton seventh.
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