Lockdown Ladder w1 report
Race Officer Gary Steele Finkelstein’s Brief Beport
The event was fully subscribed, with competitors from all three fleets, Laser 4.7, Radials, and Standards, and also spanning from Youth to Masters.
A few participants had the customary “equipment” (aka broadband) issues, and the Race Officer was grateful for rule 16 “No redress is available for broadband or other equipment issues.”, which makes his life a lot easier.
The first day saw three races involving J70’s, then 49’ers then Nacras. Bullets were achieved by Josh Morgan in the first race, Tom Williamson in the second, and Sam Whaley in the third. However consistently strong placings meant that the day went to Arthur Farley ahead of Charlie South on countback, both scoring 10 points over the three races. Third place went to Josh Morgan, with Keijiro Kikkawa following in 4th and Sam Whaley in 5th (who had an unlucky broadband equipment issue at the start of the first race).
The second day had a slightly different ordering with the 49’ers opening the racing, followed by Nacras and then Stars. Sam Whaley dominated with two bullets and a 7th, with Charlie South and Keijiro Kikkawa level pegging with 12 points, and Shotaro Kikkawa and George Sunderland (who also had an unlucky broadband/equipment incident in the last race), in distant 4th and 5th placings.
Despite Sam Whaley’s strong comeback, Charlie South’s consistency was just enough to keep him at the top of the leader board after two days, with Sam ranked second; level pegging with Keijiro Kikkawa who is sitting in third on countback. Keijiro’s brother Shotaro is in fourth place with Arthur Farley having slipped into fifth.
Race Officer’s Comment: “The standard is clearly very, very high. This fleet will punish you if you make just a small mistake. But that’s hardly surprising given how good Laser sailors are with tactics. This should not put you off from joining the ladder series, especially if you are a Laser sailor with strong tactical skills. It is very fun, a good test of tactics, and it is very tight, on the scoreboard. It will be even tighter next week when new entrants join the series, and the generous discard system starts to kick in.”
As we have since had even more entrants, and as next week end is a public holiday, the format for Lockdown Ladder-2 will be over three days, and is likely to be flighted, with blue and red flights taking place on Friday 8 May (4pm) and Sat 9 May (4pm), with flight results being computed on Saturday night for a final round on Sunday (at 4pm).
