After a busy week at uni with graded presentations it was nice to get out racing again for the second qualifier of the year. I travelled down a little earlier this time around and flew on Thursday evening – this meant myself and some of the other laser guys could get some training in on Friday. Racing began on Saturday and we were sent out into Weymouth Bay where we completed 1 race. After race 1 the visibility became very poor and racing was abandoned for the day unfortunately, but thats the game we play!
Sunday was slow to start with poor visibility again and very little wind, we were held ashore until some breeze filled in from the West. The fleet eventually got 3 great races sailed inside Weymouth harbour, but me being I me I managed to disqualify myself from the second race for being to punchy on the start line. Not ideal.
Nevertheless I was very happy with how I sailed over the weekend – especially with my starts (bar the black flag disqualification). My starts are what I wanted to work on so its great to be able to feel them going well, particularly under some pressure of a very high quality fleet. Very happy to have finished up 13th overall and 4th Under 21, even with a black flag!
The week following the Weymouth qualifier was testing week in the gym which all went to plan! The testing led nicely into a breezy qualifier at Stokes Bay, definitely some heavy feeling legs! Saturday brought 3 races in great conditions with 15 – 20 knots of wind and the infamous solent tides. I struggled in the breezy conditions to say the least. My boat handling on the start line felt pretty rusty and that didn’t set me up very well for the rest of the races. Disappointing to be so far down the results with a 26th, 23rd and 17th but I’m happy its exposed some weaknesses to work on in time for summer!
I arrived at the club on Sunday, rigged up ready to go and tried my hardest to ignore the 30+ knots that was whistling around. That 30 knots didn’t ease off, and we were left in the hands of a vote – to go sailing or to call it a day. The vote swayed in favour of staying ashore, and soon after the official flags were hoisted and everyone was sent on their way. With such an early call off, it left my mum and I with a bunch of time before our flight later that evening, so we decided to spend the day in Portsmouth!
The weekend following was spent back at home, with the next spent in the West coast for a Scottish Keelboat Academy Weekend just before travelling back down South for the Youth Nationals.
Lewis
Weymouth Qualifier:
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=94&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/wpnsa2std.2017nh.html
Stokes Bay Qualifier
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=95&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stbaystd.17nh.html
Standard Ladder 2017:
http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=95&RaceURL=%5Bresults%5D/stdlad3.2017nh.html