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Helensburgh Sailing Club Winter Series - Week 1

by Graeme Busby
7 February 2010

Helensburgh Sailing Club's winter series kicked off with two races under grey skies and a bitingly cold light to moderate south easterly breeze. A broad mix of boats in the handicap class ranging from a Tornado sport to Laser Radials and Europes completed the first two races of the series.

The flat water and lighter winds favoured the slower boats and lighter helms, with a flooding tide thrown into the mix picking a clear lane upwind was key to success. Ruairdh Campbell, vesting from Clyde Cruising Club, managed this perfectly in his newly acquired streaker and won the first race comfortably on corrected time from Graham McCubbin in his Europe, HSC's Neil McIntosh was a close third.

The second race was held in slightly more wind which allowed some of the faster boats to stretch their legs a bit more, Campbell was well placed until some gear failure dropped him down the pack. Graham McCubbin seized the opportunity and won with Neil Rosie and Ali Manderson from the home club second in the intriguingly named RS400 "Carolyn's Trip to Stobo", with the Laser of Ewan Paterson in third. The long lay off showed too with some interesting boat handling resulting in a few unscheduled swims which must have been bracing!

The Toppers also managed their full quota of races, numbers were down a little as a number of sailors were attending yet another of the interminable squad events. Calum Wilson won both races from Jack Aitken but not without some close racing and place swopping during the races. The next races in the series will be run on the 21st of February.

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Helensburgh Sailing Club Winter Series - Week 2 - 22 Feb 2010
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Helensburgh Sailing Club Winter Series 2010 - 15 Dec 2009
Helensburgh Sailing Club will once again be running our very successful Winter series early in 2010. There will be two races each day, run back to back, off the club with starts for Fast and Slow handicap plus Toppers.