Report by Adrian Heard
The South Australian RC Laser titles were conducted over the weekend of October 19/20 in light conditions. Saturday afternoon featured a 7-10 knot south-westerly breeze of reasonable consistency, whereas on Sunday morning the winds were 0-5 knots from variable directions.
Brad Hein and Adrian Heard both had consistent results on the Saturday, Brad sailing a B rig for most of the day and Adrian slogging it out on an A rig. There were a number of incidents of boats getting tangled up with each other and this particularly affected the last race of the day where 6 boats did not finish. Peter White scored two wins and Garry Polomka was pleased to win race 2.
Tony White, who was in third place overnight was leading the first race (race 12) on Sunday before he had problems with his receiver and abandoned the race. He also had problems with a servo on race 16 which really dented his chances of getting a podium position. Meanwhile Peter Elverd notched up three wins in the light conditions. Brad Hein sailed very consistently again in the trying conditions, whereas Adrian Heard had variable results which were not helped by failing to cross the finish line in race 17. Gary Hein and Bob Whitehead both had wins which they will long remember, with Gary winning in emphatic style.
After two days of racing the final score was Brad Hein 32 points, Adrian Heard 52 points and Peter Elverd 70 points. Congratulations go to Brad Hein in successfully defending his 2023 title.
Many thanks to Steve Arthur for officiating at the event. The scorers were Lorraine Berry and Stewart Ross. The recovery boat crew who had a pretty active weekend included Brian Marshall, John Moore, David Woods and Lindsay Sawyer. Lindsay Sawyer and Stewart Ross both acted as observers at various times. Also, a big thank you to Chris Levi, Gerry Geibel (photographer), Gaynor Kouwenhoven and a heap of other club members who did so much to make the weekend successful.
