Dobroyd Aquatic Club hosted the NSW State Championship 2019 for RC Lasers on the first Sunday in November.
Thanks to NSWRYA for providing the medals for first, second and third places and to Steven Crewes, DAC Member, for donating prizes.
Competition came from far afield. Noel Christison set the pace with his four-week journey from Queensland which also took in the SA State Titles. Peter Burton and Alan Griffith came from Forster Tuncurry and David Preece from George’s Basin on NSW south coast.
The success of the event was made possible by a small but dedicated team lead by Noel McPherson, the Class Captain. Thank you again to Paul Martin for his role as Race Officer. The varying wind was an early challenge but Paul still managed to set Courses which provided a fair test. At the other end of the radio was Stephen Deane who spent most of the day in the rescue boat, moving marks at Paul’s request. Stephen suffered from the odd rain shower but also made our sailing a success.
I assumed the role as scorer and with Mark Luland, we were the observers with pads and pens in hand. Not much was heard from Mark and I, as quite often after an infringement, the appropriate boat was already completing the penalty turn.
The forecast was more gentle than advised with only a light shower later in the day and no thunderstorms in our area. The wind eventually settled to a Nor’Easter with a light to moderate chop.
It was interesting to see “B”, “C” and “D” sails in the same race on one or two occasions. The “D”s would take off in a strong gust only to be overtaken by the “B”s in the lulls. Some weed from recent strong winds was shared equally so probably didn’t affect the results much, if at all.
The racing was dominated by Peter Burton and Graham Brown. An early contender was Paul Derwent who suffered more than most from weed. Alan Griffith always seemed the be up the front end and Noel McPherson again showed that consistency is what counts.
Quite a few boats had moments of glory. Apart from the top three, race winners were Alan Griffith, Paul Derwent, David Preece, Peter Close and Rob Lowndes.
Peter Burton and Graham Brown were the early contenders for NSW Champion. Peter and Graham were neck and neck with the greatest margin being only six points. This was the final difference between them.
NSW State Champion 2019 is Peter Burton scoring 23 points.
Second Place is Graham Brown scoring 29 points.
Third Place is Noel McPherson scoring 61 points.
Congratulations to all Sailors on a successful day.
Brian Chapman.
