Wraysbury Lake Sailing Club

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A chilly day for June, but with a promising wind forecast (even if from an unusual Northerly direction) greeted the 48 young helms on their arrival at Wraysbury. Andy Newton’s well drilled team made the welcome warm and the necessary registration process straightforward. The helms were divided into Gold and Silver fleets so that the best use could be made of the available water.

The sailors were keen to get underway and took to the water after the briefing sailing across the lake to the start line set by Principal Race Officer Martin Lewes and his team. So keen were the main fleet that despite the PRO’s best efforts, five were disqualified for being over the line at the start. With only one discard available from the planned four races some care would be needed by those helms to get a decent overall result.

Because of the unusual wind direction the beat to the first mark was relatively short, but long enough to separate the fleet enough for most to get round without too much shouting.

Come the final leg Benjamin Waha (Royal Southern) managed to hold off Ryan Orr (Royal Lymington) chased by Ross Thompson (Frensham Pond) who sailed well to grab the third place from local heroine Jenny Smallwood (Wraysbury Lake).
The second race was run back to back using the same course. With lunch looming some competitors were really wanting to get back to the clubhouse more than others and local youngster Alex Smallwood (Wraysbury Lake) was only beaten by James Thorne-Large (Chipstead) in the race for lunch. It was Ryan Orr who rounded out the top three, whilst Benjamin Waha could only manage a 10th after his excellent first race.

After topping up the energy levels it was back to the water for races three and four. For the first of these starts there was a good use of the line with the well disciplined flight getting away cleanly. An early wind shift was spotted by the more alert competitors and half way round the course Ryan Orr was leading Jenny Cropley (Warsash) with these two being well out in front of the chasing bunch. Ryan maintained his lead, although chased hard, to the finish line. In the second group places were hard fought over with Stefan Ward (Chipstead/ HISC), whose day had been spoilt by two OCS results, showing what he was capable of achieving followed by Mr Consistency, Sam Pearce (Burghfield), producing the second of his three fourth places.

This win gave Ryan an unassailable lead overall and he chose not to finish the last race. The rest of the flight made an excellent start, well spread along the carefully set line, and it paid to go left up the first beat. All rounded the top mark safely, but in close order. The leaders chose to go right down the run, the more direct and competitive route, but threatened with the edge of a wind shadow. Some others, lower down the fleet, chose the left side and benefitted from the slightly fresher breeze. About halfway down the run the wind filled in more generally from behind and the result was that almost everyone arrived at the leeward mark together. The resulting calls could be clearly heard by the watching parents over on the clubhouse patio, but somehow the fleet emerged without blood being spilt. Sam Pearce needed a first to threaten Jenny Cropley’s overall second place, but Jenny was not giving up the front position and Louise Hughes (Burghfield) was determined to show well and seized second with her club-mate, Patrick Gannon, taking third spot.

The Regatta fleet was competitive all the way down. It was notable as all the top nine had no qualifying positions lower than ninth, an impressive record of consistency. As in the main fleet one sailor, Iain Bird (Papercourt), stood out taking the first spot with two wins. Hanna Bryant (Burghfield) capped her two thirds with a final win for her clear second place overall.

As for the home helms in the Gold fleet, Jenny Smallwood (7th) featured strongly, but could not quite crack a top three place. Younger brother Alex was not far behind with 10th with Ben Webb and Thomas Newton following on.
In the regatta fleet it was the first Open meeting for some and the cut and thrust of interclub competition was a bit too much. Katie Webb finished all four races to lead the home helms of Esme Audland, James Kelly, Oliver Copland and Daniel Kelly.
A well deserved tea was served by the Galley Team (thanks all) and prize-giving resulted in many boxes of chocolate finding a new home.

Congratulations to Andy Newton on a well organised day, and loads of thanks to all the helpers from Wraysbury (and our friends) who made the day so enjoyable. We look forward to greeting many of our visitors again next year.