Laser League

2008 Laser League Reports

Saturday 2nd August

Attendees were: Don, Renato, Steve & Me, with Paul on the safety boat.

Course: Just two buoys, simple but it still managed to defy me. I can't remember how many races there were as I was floating towards Hammersmith most of the time.

Wind speed: A modest amount of wind on the river apart from where I was at any given time (with my radial sail)

Results: I came last in all but 1 race where I stormed to third place. Renato seemed to win a lot I think.

Other comments: Crucially, a magnetic button needs to be found for me so that I can be added to the board

T P Byrne-Price

The 2nd session of the 2nd Laser League took place this Saturday, 17th May. We had an excellent turn out – in fact too many bodies for Lasers!
6 people and 5 lasers, so thank goodness we had the addition of Bec Scott laser, which the club has just bought from her. It is a really superb boat and in excellent condition, so Renato put it through its paces.

Fred Fair, our newest member took out my Laser for the first 2 races, and considering this was his first solo trip on the river, he did extremely well. There wasn’t too much wind, but it did build a bit as the morning went on.

Steve Barnes had his first win, which we were all very pleased about, and Steve was extra thrilled!

And very good to see David Kennedy again after a while away from sailing, doing a lot of diving.

Results as follows:

Race 1
1st – Steve Barnes
2nd – Fred Fair
3rd – Don Henderson
4th – Renato
5th – Well there was no 5th as David Kennedy didn’t quite make it for this race so “retired”!!

Race 2
1st – Don
2nd – Renato
3rd – Steve
4th – Fred
5th – David

Race 3
1st – Renato
2nd – Sara
3rd – Don
4th – David
5th – Steve

Race 4
1st – Renato
2nd – Don
3rd – Sara
4th – Steve
5th – David

Race 5 – Round one Lap and back to the Club Line
1st – Don
2nd - Sara
3rd Steve
4th – Renato
5th – David Sara

This Sunday, four of the racing sailors also competed in the Laser
League over a triangular course spread across the river from our start
line to almost Crabtree wharf, across to the Surrey milepost and back to
below the start line. There were 5 Enterprises, 4 Lasers and 1 GP,
totalling 16 sailors plus safety boat of 2 and 2 race Officials making
for a good South Bank turn out. The usual disorderly start was augmented
by lulls and huge "holes" in the wind that saw boats in irons and close
hauled whilst being almost side by side. At the Crabtree mark the wind
dropped, almost every time I got there, and the leaders drifted towards
Hammersmith as the tail end caught up, rounded the buoy and set sail to
the milepost. The wind was hyper variable throughout the 4 laps. There
were plenty of opportunities to gain the lead at one buoy only to be
overtaken at the next. In the end, Alan and Callum pipped John and
Renato in the Enterprises closely followed by Don and Peter in Lasers.
Sunday was another wonderful day on the river, in glorious warm sunshine
and a rosy sunset giving a perfect ending to the Club's AGM.

Fantastic spring bank holiday weather and a good steady wind blowing up the river, along our stretch gave the best Laser sailing day this year and a great start to the Summer Laser League. Jeremy set up a triangular course giving us lots of close hauled action and running with the tide. The usual laser reprobates were there – Sara, Callum, Renato, Steve and Don. The first race from the Club’s start line saw a mess of boats vying for the best wind with tide to run up the river towards Crabtree Wharf. Pretty soon Steve had pulled away chased by Don. The others followed at a distance as they tried to adjust their boats to improve their speed. Steve gybed round the first mark and headed across to Harrod’s Repository, where he was overhauled by Don putting in plenty of close hauled tacks to stay out of the tide as he made his way down to the third mark at the Mile post. Steve battled to keep up, but soon Sara, recovering from a bad start had overtaken Callum and Renato, was on his heels. By the third mark, Don had established his lead and Sara was in second place. The two lap race ended with Don first, Sara second and Steve third.

Steve had to head off at this point and Renato followed him to swap boats. The second race was between Callum, Sara and Don who elected to start in reverse sequence to the first race finishers - so Sara could not start until Callum had crossed the start line and Don had to wait until Sara had crossed. It was another thrilling race with everyone hiked out to balance their boats. Don and Sara were first and second again.

The third race was a disaster for Don who elected to capsize across the start line. He looked wistfully at the others rounding the first mark as he pulled up his boat and clambered aboard. It was a close tussle between Sara, Renato and Callum. Renato won in the Club’s original laser, closely followed by Sara, with Don at the tail end.

The excitement didn’t end there. There was spectacular sailing back to the Clubhouse – everyone close hauled and fully hiked out and to dipping their heads in the water. Controlling the boats to land was difficult, but Callum and Sara showed us how. Sara managed to hold her boat and catch Don, but every time Renato approached there was a gust of wind that sent him flying. Renato gave a fantastic demonstration of a dry capsize by stepping across the hull onto the centre board and back again as he righted the boat. He landed easily on his next approach.

What a great day – the joys of spring, fabulous weather and exciting sailing !

The winner of the Club’s first ever Laser League is Renato who scored 34 points, second was Sara with 31 points and third equal were Rory and Don.

In addition to the Laser League Ladder, Laser sailors can earn points for taking part when two or more Lasers compete.

Points are awarded as 3 points for 1^st place, 2 for 2^nd and 1 for competing.