Goodacre Cup Open Meeting at Roadford Lake Sailing Club
by Richard Willows 29 Aug 2014 13:21 BST
23-25 August 2014
The 2014 Goodacre Cup for South West Lakes Trust members and visitors was held at Roadford Lake under the auspices of Roadford Lake sailing club over the August bank holiday weekend.
34 competitors enjoyed varying conditions over the three days, with Saturday's two races being the lightest and shifty with a northerly breeze, Brian Hutchings from Roadford being the overnight leader.
After a light start, Sunday's sailing saw the wind shift to the South and gradually increase in strength and it became clear that the battle for honours would be between the three Roadford Lasers of Brian Hutchings, Kevin Reed and Mark Stitson, and the Tasar from Porthpean sailed by Leonal Rigby and Kevin Fobbester.
As the wind increased, Kevin Reed gradually dominated conditions, lower down the fleet there were small battles between the RS Vision of the De Glanvilles, the Devon Yawl of Niall Macloud and the Laser of Colin Brown, whilst the Buzz of Roger Eyre from Mountbatten was always close to the RS400 of Chris Mulholland.
Monday dawned with heavy rain and an increasingly brisk southerly wind. OOD Richard Willows postponed the start for half an hour in the vain hope that the rain might pass through, but with competitors ready and waiting, a reduced fleet of 19 set out to do battle with the conditions.
There were plenty of capsizes to keep the patrol boats busy, with the two RS800s and the 4000 getting much swimming practice both up wind and downwind. Two races in 2½ hrs was more than enough, and competitors were glad to get ashore and get dry and finally the sun came out whilst boats were packing up.
First overall: Kevin Reed, RLSC, Laser
Second overall: Lionel Rigby, Porthpean, Tasar
Third overall: Brian Hutchings, RLSC, Laser
First lady helm and junior: Ellie Hutchings, Laser, RLSC
Second junior: Jack Dilworth, Laser
The other junior was Solomon White, crewed by twin sisters Isabel and Madeleine in a centre RS Vision who sailed with much enjoyment.
Very many thanks in particular to the Wallace family who helped on the committee boat, got the food for the barbecue and helped with the results and to the strong contingents who came from Bristol Avon sailing club and Shearwater for supporting the event again.
Full Results available on www.roadfordlakesailingclub.org.uk