ROUND FOUR

A change from the usual triangular course was made for Round 4 at the lake today. There appeared to be a reasonable breeze from the South West, so the start was from between the pontoon and Buoy 7, over the lake to Buoy 3, down to Buoy 8 and then up to Buoy 5 before returning to Buoy 7 and to the finish line at Buoy 8 after two laps.

Back on form Brian Hartley got off to a flying start by winning the first two races, with Paul Beardshaw second in Race 1 and Roger Monks second in Race 2.  Stuart Axon finished a creditable third an the first race and Phil Parsons third in the next. In Race 3, George Younger led the fleet over the line, whilst Brian, Paul and again George won races four, five and six respectively.

Brian was the clear winner for the day, confirming his return to form whilst Roger Monks had a bad day by his standards, and ended up in the fourth position. Paul finished 2nd giving him a lead in the series so far but as the final placings are based on the best four rounds, the competition is still wide open.

ROUND FIVE

Only five skippers took part in Round 5 of this year’s Summer Series. The course was from the pontoon and Buoy 7, to Buoy 3, then unusually to Buoys 8 and 5 before returning to Buoy 7 for the second lap. The finish was the usual Buoy 8.

There was a moderate warm South Westerly breeze on the lake again this week which made sailing comfortable but unpredictable due to the lack of definite and constant wind direction. No doubt Stuart Axon was envious of the balmy conditions whilst on holiday in Corsica and wishing he was here instead.

Current Series leader Paul Beardshaw got off to a flying start by winning the first race by a very healthy margin with back in form Brian Hartley coming home in second place and Roger Monks third. The second race was a carbon copy of the first with everyone in the same finishing positions and in the third race, Paul and Brian had a close finish with Paul again the victor by inches at the line. Phil Parsons squeezed into third place just ahead of George Younger who was struggling to catch the wind today.

After the coffee break, Paul increased his lead with another win ahead of Roger with Brian in third place but in Race 5, Jammy found his form and crossed the line in first place ahead of Paul, George, Roger and Phil. The final race saw Paul once again finishing first ahead of Roger this time with Brian in third place.

With five wins on the day, Paul took the honours with Brian ending in the second spot ahead of Roger. With one round left in the Series, however, the first place still hasn’t been secured by anyone and all is to race for next week.

ROUND SIX

The final round of this year’s Summer Series was held today in very light winds which made sailing difficult. It was a pleasure to welcome Simon Booth back into the fleet after a long absence due to work commitments.

With the Series leader still to be confirmed, it was all to play for between Paul Beardshaw and Roger Monks for the first place. Brian Hartley would be unable to overtake them due to his uncharacteristic poor results in the first two rounds. Due to the general lack of wind on the far side of the lake, a narrow triangular course was set from the pontoon and Buoy 7 to Buoys 2 and 1 before returning to Buoy 7 for two laps and then sailing back to Buoy 8 for the finish.

Roger got off to a great start in Race 1 but inexplicably sailed the wrong way round Buoy 7 on the first lap leaving Brian ahead until he too fell foul of Buoy 2 after a mistake by George Younger forced him on the wrong side off the buoy. The light winds made penalty turns put an end to the challenge of the offending boat and both Roger and Brian suffered as a result leaving Paul to win almost by default.

Brian came back strongly and was a clear winner in the next three races with Paul, George and Roger taking the second places respectively, whilst Roger’s challenge seemed to grind to a halt after rigging problems slowed his progress.

Stuart Axon was unlucky in Race 4 when confusion arose over which lap he was on caused him to sail off course to the finish line, thereby surrendering his second place which would have been his best position of the day. George Younger was the victor in Race 5 and Brian returned to his winning ways in the last race of the series. Simon was struggling due to battery and rudder problems probably caused by such a long lay off but hopefully will be overcome in his next outing.

As the results table shows, the final placings were very close with Paul and Brian finishing on equal points for the best four rounds. After the countback of discarded rounds, congratulations for this years winner go to Paul with Brian taking the runner up position.