Sunday morning greeted the sailors of Welland Yacht Club with grey skies and a wind blowing across the river.
The water level was high compared with previous weeks, although this changed drastically during the day’s racing.
Five boats started and with a reaching start it was important to remain the right side of the line.
It was Mark Scourfield in the Solo who judged this best, just getting ahead of Andy Prior in the Laser full rig who was just ahead of Helen Boyd in the Solo, Adam Stabler in the Laser full rig and, due to a timing issue, Alan Chapman in the Laser full rig.
With the wind patchy, the boats made their way to Shelly’s Bush Corner spread across the river with a few luffing contests tried between some turning the corner, it was the larger sails of Prior and Stabler who pulled away.
However just before Chilver’s Corner there was a sizable wind shadow caused by a row of bushes and it was a lottery getting through this as quickly as possible. It was Prior who led the way, followed by Stabler, Boyd, Scourfield and Chapman.
Once round the corner it was a long and a short tack to 4 buoy and Prior extended his lead leaving the rest to negotiate the rounding of the buoy.
All arriving at the same time made for some close quarter action, this coupled with a flow on the river as the lock gates were now open, meant that Boyd and Chapman hit the mark, and had penalty turns to do putting them further back.
The places did not change after this, but the gaps between the boats did and at stages in the second lap the corrected handicap times of boats were won and lost.
After the second lap with boats having to get to grips with the increased river flow, it was Prior who crossed first, followed by Scourfield, Chapman, Stabler and Boyd, and after the handicaps applied it was Prior in first, 2nd Scourfield, 3rd Chapman, 4th Stabler and 5th Boyd.
For the second race of the day there was a course change, meaning only having to sail through the wind shadow area once.
The river was in full flow, bringing down lumps of weed and timber giving the sailors something extra to think about.
Boyd stole pole position and was a good boat’s length in front of Prior, Scourfield, Chapman and Stabler.
The broad reach to Shelly’s Bush Corner let Stabler catch up and as the boats approached they were spread across the river and again it was Prior who headed for the far bank to get out of the main flow and catch the best wind, followed by Stabler as the boats bunched up in the wind shadow.
Prior exited first and pulled away to extend a lead that was never threatened. The others came through it with Scourfield just getting ahead of Stabler and holding this second place and with the wind freshening, it was Stabler who was chasing these two down with Chapman not far behind.
Once again Boyd hit the mark and also rounding number 1 buoy went aground as the water level had dropped by a foot.
Prior crossed well ahead and as the handicaps were applied he was first, 2nd Scourfield, 3rd Stabler, 4th Chapman and 5th Boyd.
