Welland Yacht Club well represented at Rutland Water’s Tiger Trophy

Welland Yacht Club had three boats competing at the Tiger Trophy event held at Rutland Water over the weekend.

Andy Prior and Tom Bell (in a scorpion), juniors Niall Holland and Lucy Burton (RS Feva XL) and Paul Burton (phantom) were all out on the water at the two-day event.

Prior, Bell, Holland and Lucy Burton were in action on both days, with Paul only partaking in Sunday’s race.

With 137 boats entered this was Holland and Lucy Burton’s first major event – with three races back-to-back on the Saturday and a two-hour pursuit race on Sunday.

With brilliant sunshine but light winds, both boats headed out with the rest of the fleet to the starting area for what was expected to be three hours of sailing.

Race one eventually got under way at 12.30pm, with experienced sailors Prior and Bell hoping to do well against a fleet including national and world champions plus a Olympic silver medallist, while the juniors were just looking forward to the experience.

GOOD EFFORT: Welland’s Andy Prior and Tom Bell

With race two getting under way at 2pm, the sun may have been shining but it was still cold out on the water.

And, by the time race two had come to an end, Holland and Lucy Burton decided to call it a day and headed back in. Prior and Bell, meanwhile, stayed out and compared their progress against similar boats and checking which settings worked ahead of Sunday’s race.

Greeted by fog, all three boats were set up ready for the scheduled 11am start.

But the race was delayed before eventually being called off at 1pm, leaving the Welland sailors disappointed.