Maidenhead Laser Championship

Twelve Laser Standard sailors took their place on the start line for some intense and heated racing in the afternoon on 31st October.

As in the morning (see Gary's article here), the course was a windward-leeward course with a spreader mark at the top and gate at the bottom. Again, the plan was to complete a sprint series of five 20-minute races with the last one being a double points medal race.

Maidenhead Laser Championship - photo © Gary Bullock

Gary Bullock had a poor start to his series but rebounded with 3 straight bullets and a second place in the medal race, claiming first overall at a canter. Doubly imposing was Alastair Brown, who had clearly not had his fill of the morning's racing and decided to race in the afternoon in his radial. Taking advantage of other racers mixed results, Alastair was very consistent, winning the medal race. This allowed to hold on to second in the series.

Only a little further back, a furious battle was raging for the last step on the podium. Dave Hirst, Chris Nash and Adam Meekings all finished within a point of each other. Dave had profited from the other competitors' slow start, taking the win in the first race, which help him to 3rd in the series. Adam managed to slip from contention for second place with a poor medal race. Meanwhile, Sasha Mayhew and Stuart McAdam were also tied on 27 points further back, particularly impressive given that Stuart is more likely to be found in his Albacore than 'slumming it' in the Laser. Stuart secured a strong result in the competitive fleet with a solid second place in race 4, while Sasha was consistently in the fight for good results.

Maidenhead Laser Championship - photo © Gary Bullock

Silver Fleet was equally competitive, with James Gladwyn leading by some considerable margin. As with Stuart, James was having a slight identity crisis, having not sailed a Laser for quite some time and being much more acquainted with his Solo. That didn't stop him from dominating, with a lead of 17 points over the next best placed sailors, Oliver Meats, Adrian Sutton and Mark Hudson, again three sailors tied on points.

The short racing was popular with competitors, and the Medal race was largely popular as well (depending on your result!). Overall, the event was a success and is more than likely to happen again at some point in the future.

Overall Results: