Dynamic Datchet - 2 Day @ Datchet Report

After our last two visits to Datchet, which wind wise were disappointing to put it mildly, Saturday provided enough wind, water - and sunshine - to last us several events!

As usual LWA sailors were piggybacking on day one of the UKWA Regional Series Event Two and results for our regular sailors have been extracted from the overall figures.

Apart from the risk of sunburn and being blown off the water, the edge of the reservoir was more slippery than ever and considerable care had to be taken to avoid damage to kit and self. When we arrived at the club the wind was a gentle seven or eight knots, but it soon got into its stride with gusts into the upper twenties!

On the Saturday we had the reservoir to ourselves and Race Officer Mike Dempsey opted for the far end which was very windy, but the distance made video capture difficult which is why the resulting video contains shots from the Sunday only. Saturday's racing was all on an S shaped course (often incorrectly called a "P") which has a short run after Mark 2 followed by two reaches to the finish line. This made a pleasant change from our usual Olympic Box and naturally caused chaos at the starboard gybe mark in the middle of the course to add extra interest.

As far as the LWA results were concerned the battle at the sharp end was between Lewis Barnes and Rob Kent, who managed to fill first and second places in all four LWA races in that order. In Race One Rebecca Kent took a brilliant third place ahead of Paul Leone in fourth but for the rest of the day she had to contend with the much stronger winds and the best she could manage was a pair of 10ths.

Tom Cunningham and Alysia Gibson, both on RS:Xs, experienced a great day's racing. Tom collecting a fantastic third place in Race Three which enabled him to beat Alysia by 4 points on the day.

A little further down the fleet there was a battle between Florent Lambert and Peter Murray, both on Div II boards - a brave effort in view of the serious wind. Florent came off best, managing to beat Peter by a couple of places in every race.

In Race Two Jon Davis filled third place behind Lewis and Rob, with Nick Kidd in fourth, his best of the day, one place ahead of Julian Tait, also enjoying his most successful race.

For Race Three the wind had increased still further and many sailors had opted for change-down sails. As mentioned above, Tom Cunningham took third behind Lewis and Rob, with Toby Cave taking the first of two fourth places, which brought him right up the final list.

The fourth race found Lewis and Rob filling the top slots and Jon Davis taking another third, which kept him well clear of Paul Leone in the overalls.

That was the end of the LWA racing for the day but Mike Dempsey kept the fleet out for yet another race, ensuring that everyone was well and truly knackered!

LWA Prizes will be presented at our next event at Oxford SC on Sat 22 July.

Results:

Raceboard: (overall placings in brackets)

1: Lewis Barnes (1) also 1st Heavy

2: Rob Kent (2) also 1st Light & 1st Master

3: Jon Davis (3)

1st Vet: Paul Leone (4)

1st Supervet: Nick Kidd (5)

1st Youth Boy: Julian Tait (6)

1st Lady: Annette Kent (8)

1st Youth Girl: Rebecca Kent (10)

1st RS:X: Tom Cunningham (9)

1st Div II: Florent Lambert (15)

In the Two Day UKWA Regional Series Event Two (nine races in total), Mark Kay was 1st Raceboard overall and LWA sailors took the following honours: Lewis Barnes - 2nd overall; Toby Cave - 1st Raceboard Youth Boy; Rebecca Kent - 1st Raceboard Youth Girl; Annette Kent - 1st Raceboard Lady; Bob Ingram - 1st Raceboard Vet and Rod Davis - 1st Raceboard Supervet. Alysia Gibson was 1st RS:X Girl and Florent Lambert 1st Div II.