News
Jon Emmett's 4.7/Radial Youth Boot Camp February 8th/9th
There is no rest for the wicked and quality winter training is absolutely essential for Youth Sailor progression. This year Medway Yacht Club will host Olympic Gold medal winning Coach Jon Emmett (www.jonemmettsailing.co.uk) for 2 days of intensive coaching and video feedback.
Saturday evening there will be a combined talk: Coach Yourself to Win – Jon talks about how to make the best of every minute of every day you have training without a coach and will field questions from the floor to help sailors work out how to have the very best possible 2020 season
Golden Lily – the sailing career of an Olympic Champion, Lijia Xu (Lily) talks about her career to date from leaving her family to train with the Chinese National Team to being crowned World Sailor of the Year in 2012. She will also explain what she is up to now. 16:30 for 17:00 start – ALL WELCOME
Click HERE to book.
Meet our new 4.7 Rep Gary Finkelstein
My sailing bio is very boring. I love sailing but as a child I never really had the opportunity. The only sailing I did was in my best friend’s father’s boat ... an OD11. But loved the splash of the waves and the force of the wind ... I used to have to imagine other boats racing against me.
Today my sailing is limited to managing, transporting and sponsoring my son Max Steele (see Max Steele Sailing on facebook or 216648MaxSteele on Instagram); who had an extremely successful career in the RS Tera and now loves the Laser. However I am also increasingly chartering yachts when I get the opportunity... my favourite being around the Island of Barbados, although I hope to go further afield as my wife and daughter’s passion grow
LASER PERFORMANCE OPEN AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020
LASER PERFORMANCE UK LASER OPEN AND NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS 2020 MOUNTS BAY SAILING CLUB 25th -31st July
We are hoping to welcome many sailors from overseas as we did in 2019.
Mounts Bay is a fantastic location! Great for family holiday, great for sailing, surfing, beach games, sun bathing…
Plans are already underway to make this the best Nationals ever! Great racing, Great socials! Entries opening soon. Website still under construction, but you can see it here:
Book your accommodation now – there is a basic field where you can camp near the dinghy park or here is a link to the club’s accommodation list-
SUPER GRAND PRIX 2020 - Great Fun For All
SGP's are a new exciting way of combining training and open meetings for the club and travelling sailor - one day's training, followed by social, then racing on the Sunday.
There’s a series in the North and one in the South.
Dates so far for 2020 are:
23rd/24th May St Mary's Lock Lakeland/ Borders
30th/31st May Queen Mary Thames
13th/14th June Newhaven & Seaford South East
13th/14th June Hollowell Midlands
11th/12th July Pagham South Coast
22nd/23rd Aug Castle Cove South Coast
3rd/4th October Staunton Harold Midlands
More details to follow.
Winter 2019-2020 Laser training in the North East
Winter Laser training has started in the north at Pennine sailing club with Richard Benson
At Pennine SC:- 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th January
At Derwent Reservoir SC:- 8th and 15th February 7th, 14th and 28th March
All dates are Saturdays only, 10am rigged but not changed £20 per person If the weather looks too bad for any reason will advise around 7pm on Friday night so as to save a wasted trip. Also at Beadnell Sailing Club Monday to Friday 25-29 May £60 plus donation for RIB expenses
Contact David Shilling 07870 333498 davidandvictoria@talktalk.net and follow the facebook page Lakeland and Border Laser Grand Prix
Minorca Sailing Masters Inland Championships 2019 Standards report
When competitors arrived at Rutland for this year’s Masters’ Inland Championships there was no wind, and sure enough, Saturday’s racing was initially postponed.
However, a light westerly breeze filled in just after midday, the AP was lowered and the fleet drifted gently out to the start area. Luckily it did slowly build and racing got underway with little delay. The PRO set a triangle sausage three-lap course and amazingly race one got away first time. Up the first beat, the right-hand side paid well and Richard Major (sailing with his Standard Mk 1 sail because he forgot to pack his Radial sail) found he was leading by a country mile. The rest were in catch-up mode with Alan Davis, Neil Peters and Tim Keighly well placed. Shifty, patchy winds led to lots of place changes behind Major, and up the final beat, Stuart Hudson inched past Davis to lie second behind Major, who still led by a distance with just the final downwind triangle to go. For no good reason though, Major followed the Radials down the run (perhaps there was a deep longing to be with his own kind) gifting first place to Hudson, but he still managed to retain second with Davis third.
Race 2 saw a textbook port-end start by Peters, with Hudson and Davis also down that end. The left side was beginning to pay and these three rounded in close proximity. The lead swapped between Davis and Hudson several times, but up the last beat, Hudson sniggled through and held on to the finish with Davis second, Keighly third and Major fourth, and that was it for the day.
Rutland SC provided some much needed great food and we were greatly entertained by Neil Peters with incredible tales from his round GB in a Laser experiences. Congratulations to John Curran of Wembley Sailing Club for winning an incredible Minorca Sailing holiday in the prize draw.
Sunday dawned flat calm and we waited for a forecasted light northerly before launching. Race 3 again got away first time, with Davis again making a good start at the port end. The wind strengthened and lifted on port on the left side of the course, and Davis led at the first mark and held that lead to the finish. Major grabbed second, Peter McChrystal third, with Hudson recovering from being right on the first beat and edging past Guy Noble for fourth.
By now the wind was dodgy, but Race 4 did get away after a short postponement. Davis and Hudson were level on points going into the last race, and after Hudson got a slightly better start, he covered Davis closely up the first beat. They ended up on the right side of the course along with Major, which was very wrong and so it was that the top three overall were the last three round the top mark. At the front, the race was led and won by Graham MacWhirter, with Tim Keighly second and Guy Noble third.
At this stage, the wind really had disappeared and the PRO and most of the competitors had had enough. This meant that the lead was tied but Stuart Hudson won on count back and received Guy Noble’s newly painted Masters’ Inland trophy.
Thanks to Rutland SC and all the organizers for putting on a great weekend. Although this season has been one of mainly light wind events racing has been competitive yet friendly and the onshore hospitality of all the clubs involved has been exceptional. On behalf of all the competitors this season we would like to thank all the volunteers for their hard work. And as another season ends we would like to make special thank you to all the sponsors - Minorca Sailing Holidays, Southeast Sailboats, Laser Performance UK, Wildwind Holidays, and Fernhurst Books.
Minorca Sailing Masters Inland Championships 2019 Radial Report
Beautiful weather greeted the Laser Masters at Rutland on the Saturday morning of the event, that is if you like the surrounding fields and Swans reflected in the mirror like surface of the water, but not if you wanted to take part in good sailing conditions. It wasn’t looking good for getting in three intense races on the first day of the Inland Championships.
Eventually, after a postponement of just over an hour we were released from shore with the promised wind beginning to fill in over the lake.
The wind wasn’t great but enough to get us under way. Starting after the Standard fleet has its advantages as the Radials could watch where on the start line the big boys were starting and which way, left or right, they made their way to the windward mark.
Remarkably both fleets got away first time and by the windward mark a pattern was starting to establish itself in the Radial fleet with Jon Emmett, Rob Cage and Mike Kinnear up at the front closely followed by David Catto and Gareth Edwards. It appeared that going right a short distance from the start line was paying off. The top three fought a close battle over the first race with Jon maintaining a short lead until the end, followed by Mike and then Rob. Alison Stevens could well have been up in the top five but for a gear failure which ended her race.
The second race was looking like a repeat of the first race with Jon eventually establishing a slightly bigger lead but this time from David who got past Mike on the broad reach and held him off to the finish. Rob made the error of not sailing farther enough to the right side of the course on the windward leg, it was that critical in this shifty wind. Rob lost out to David and Mike and finished fourth with Gareth fifth. That was it for the day as the wind was dropping away, but hey not many of us thought we would get two races when we first arrived.
We were all hoping for better winds come Sunday, but it was not to be as we were met with foggy conditions which meant no appreciable wind on the lake. This resulted in the inevitable postponement. A few glimpses of the sun cleared the fog and we were launching an hour later. The wind strength was even less than on Saturday and had swung from the South to WNW so all the knowledge of what way to go up the beat from the previous day was out the window. The RO got us away for the first race of the day without too much difficulty. This time it wasn’t obvious from watching the Standards what was the best route to the windward mark so there was a lot of guess work needed, although on the face of it, it didn’t seem to pay to hit the corners. Rob had obviously gone into a dark room overnight and meditated because he was leading at the windward mark this time and held off Jon all the race to take his first bullet of the event. Behind Rob and Jon at the windward mark came Gareth & David and then Bob Draper, looking fully recovered from a bad shoulder injury, who had made the best of the fluky conditions to round in fifth. The finishing positions were Rob, Jon, Gareth, David and Mike.
Conditions continued to deteriorate with the wind alternatively rising and fading so there was a bit of a wait until the second race of the day could be started. The RO was determined to get in another race and everyone was actually looking forward to a much needed discard.
The wind was dying all during the race and Rob appeared at the top mark in first position and looked on course to repeat his result in the previous race but that was without taking account of the brilliance of Jon who had a poor first beat and only managed fifth at the first windward mark. Jon proceeded to work his way through the field and finished first followed by Rob and then Alison who seemed to be really enjoying the conditions. Mike was fourth and David fifth. The wind had virtually disappeared by the time the back markers were struggling to finish so we were sent home to get ashore before darkness fell.
Final overall positions for the Radial fleet were:
1st Jon Emmett Apprentice Master
2nd Rob Cage Grand Master
3rd Mike Kinnear Legend
Our thanks go to Rutland SC and the Race Committee and Team for a very good series sailed in very trying conditions. Also, to all our sponsors: MinorcaSailing for their wonderful prize, Laser Performance UK, Wildwind, Southeast Sailboats, Fernhurst Books and Merger IT for continuing to provide their amazing support.
RYA AWARD AND ROYAL PRESENTATION FOR SUNBURY VOLUNTEER - Tony Woods
A sailor and volunteer from Sunbury-on-Thames has been presented with one of the RYA’s most prestigious awards by HRH the Princess Royal, President of the RYA in recognition of his commitment to Queen Mary Sailing Club (QMSC).
Tony Woods received an Outstanding Contribution Award after being nominated by his club and selected as a winner by the RYA Honours and Awards Panel. He was presented at One Great George Street, London on Friday 22 November.
The RYA is boating’s national governing body and the Volunteer Awards are considered the ‘MBEs' of the sport, honouring people throughout the UK for their outstanding contributions across all the disciplines the RYA represents, including sailing, windsurfing, motor cruising, inland waterways and personal watercraft.
Watch a video of the awards here
Tony has been Fleet Captain at QMSC for nine years and organiser of the UK Laser Nationals for two years running. His own mentoring scheme gets the fleet to work together to improve sailing standards, provides support when things don’t go well and gives every Laser sailor at QMSC a sense of being on the same team.
He has introduced training sessions after racing on Sundays as well as professional coaching sessions from top Laser sailors. He initiated the Big Sunday series to get as many Laser sailors on the water as possible and has set up the QM Laser website and Facebook page. As a result, his resurrected QM Laser fleet is now as big as it was in the 1980s.
The UK Laser Association has persuaded Tony to bring his considerable organisational skills and energy to organising the Laser Nationals, and in Plymouth in 2018 he was responsible for creating the whole social programme. His consistent support for Laser sailors locally and nationally is outstanding.
Tony said on receiving his award: “I was both thrilled and honoured to receive the RYA award. Thanks to QMSC for nominating me and for being such a great team to work with! My wife and I enjoyed the awards ceremony very much.”
Nominations are now invited for the 2020 RYA volunteer awards, visit www.rya.org.uk/go/volunteerawards
Laser Masters 2019 Round-Up and 2020 Plan
The Laser Masters have had 5 events this year. We started at Notts County in March, then visited an old favourite at Pevensey who always have the most amazing beach support which makes up for the pebbles! Light winds accompanied the fleet to the Masters Nationals at Royal Torbay where much fun was had in the evening entertainment. Unfortunately, we were only able to complete one race at Hayling Island, due to too much and then too little wind. All those who attended on the Saturday night were able to hear about the adventures of masters sailor ‘Stick Daring’ during his circumnavigation of Britain. The inlands at Rutland finished the season where the race officer and his team did an amazing job to get 4 good races in in challenging conditions.
We are exceptionally lucky within the Masters fleet have sponsorship from some amazing sponsors: Laser Performance, Wildwind, Southeast Sailboats, Fernhurst Books, Minorca Sailing and Merger IT. A big thank you to them for all their support over the last year.
Laser Masters 2020
The Laser Masters fleet are looking forward to a full and exciting year in 2020. We have a range of venues planned from old favourites to new locations. The 2020 Laser Masters programme is:
9/10 May Brightlingsea
13/14 June Parkstone
3/4/5 July Weymouth
5/6 Sept Pevensey
19/20 Sept Draycote
7/8 Nov Chew Valley
As always, a GBR contingent will be heading over to the Laser Masters Worlds. They are being held in Geelong, Australia, in 2020, allowing the sailors to make the most of sunny weather in March! The Laser Masters Europeans will be held in Monaco in April 2020, and I will publish more information on the website and Masters Facebook page as it becomes available.
Late applications are now open so if anyone does fancy sailing down under, check out the ILCA website now. Places and charter boats are still available
You have mentioned the Masters Europeans. As our Nats are part of the EuroMaster series should we not also have a quick mention of that series directing people to:
https://www.eurilca.eu/euromasters/
The Laser Masters are a friendly fleet with good competition on the water with a range of expertise. More importantly, the social side is friendly and fun, and we encourage sailors to come to the events with their partners and families.
Come and join us in 2020 and experience the Laser Masters vibe.
Alison Stevens
Masters Rep