Queen Mary - a Royal Event

LWA Summer Series 2018 Event One Queen Mary Sat 7 April

As we arrived at Queen Mary for the first event of our Summer Series, postponed from the snowy weather of three weeks ago, there was almost no wind at all, yet the forecasts were predicting gusts of up to 20kts by late morning. Somebody somewhere had got things terribly wrong! Our 14 competitors rigged up in full expectation of a day’s pumping and left the beach in an almost dead calm, however by the time they reached the committee boat a spanking Force Four had appeared out of nowhere.

Kevin Greenhough, on his new sail with its wide luff, made a cracking start and was first round the windward mark, however by the end of Lap One he had been reeled in by Toby Cave and Rob Kent and by the last lap he had been overtaken by Jon Davis. Nevertheless a great debut on a new sail.

In Race Two Annette Kent made a bold port end start and by the end of lap one was still in the lead. Rob however managed to get past on the next lap as Annette was having problems with a sticking daggerboard. She eventually finished in 6th . Rob was first over the line followed by Jon and Kevin. Rebecca Kent finished fourth, to start to build up her impressive score for the day. Emily-Jane Eldred on a Techno 7.8 had her best race of the day, finishing 5th.

Photos by John Liddy.

In the morning the highest gust recorded was around the 19 knot mark but things moderated just a little for the afternoon although it had got up to 21 over lunch. We enjoyed the top of a Force Four for our last two races.

In Race Three Rob and Annette were in the lead for the first two laps, then Rebecca managed to get between them, eventually finishing second in front of Jon and Annette. Toby Cave, after his very impressive 2nd place in Race One on his new 9.5 Demon, found his arms giving up and sadly had to retire from the afternoon’s races.

Race Four found Rob, Annette, Jon and Rebecca battling for the top places. Annette was once again having daggerboard grief and slipped down to 4th place.

It was great to see Toby Cave and Galahad Wisbey trying our their new 9.5 sails, clearly they will be a force to be reckoned within the near future. Congratulations on their performance on a very difficult day should also go to Techno sailors Elektra Day-San (6.8) and Emily Jane Eldred (7.8). Emily-Jane sailed extremely well and finished half way up the results.

RESULTS:

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

2: Jon Davis (also 1st Heavy)

3: Rebecca Kent (also1st Youth)

4: Kevin Greenhough

5: Annette Kent (also 1st Lady)

6: Nick Kidd (also 1st Supervet)

7: Emily-Jane Eldred (also 1st 7.8)

14: Elektra Day-San (also 1st 6.8