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Laser 5000 Report 2011 by Taff Owens

Once again, the 5 tonner has shown that it remains demanding and competitive and continues to deliver the thrills and spills that keeps the ‘5 tonnes of adrenalin’ flowing. The number of owners in the association is growing and the number of boats being found throughout the country and on the continent continues to increase.

We cannot be complacent however and although we have found more boats and new crews are coming forward, there are one or two who have had to sell their boats due to family commitments and due to the current fiscal climate where people are having to concentrate on work and leisure time is more difficult to find and family priorities come first.

RYA DINGHY SHOW – ALEXANDRA PALACE

The association has had an extremely rewarding year which started with the help of Northampton Sailboats as they invited the Class to join them at the RYA Dinghy Show at Alexandra Palace. There were many who showed an interest in the class and many youngsters showed an interest in the skiff, particularly due to the very affordable 2nd hand prices.

We’ve followed one or two of these up and it’s slowly beginning to pay dividends. In addition, many of the ‘old sweats’ came to see the boat again and many yarns were re-counted. It was particularly good to see Derek Clark and Cliff Norbury, ho were part of the original design team.

TRAINING WEEKEND – GRAFHAM WATER SC

The annual training weekend was run again in April, however this time it was held once again at Grafham Water with some new faces on the scene.

Having seen Mark Reynell at the 2010 National Championships, it was good to see him again at the Training Weekend. He probably delivered more training from his effortless sailing that he actually received! One highlight of the weekend was the appearance of Ben Julian, who now owns GBR 5000, the original production model Laser 5000 and although he says he had lots of work to do on it, it was great to see him. The weekend went well, and I think that by the end of the Sunday, the crews there wanted to put the Coach’s whistle somewhere that shouldn’t be mentioned!

OPEN EVENT – POOLE YC

The next event for the Class Association was an open event held at Poole YC. The club hosted us in fine style despite only 5 crews attending the event, probably due to the high winds forecast. Having said that the winds on Saturday turned out to be light with many crews searching for the twin wire breeze.

True to the forecast, high winds in the top of a 5 range with massive force 6 gusts appeared and on Sunday and it took a while for the decision to be made to head out to the sailing area. Two boats decided to sit it out, with three heading out to the race area with the boat making the least mistakes (and therefore capsizes in these conditions) to win - but only just!

Results for Poole were:

1	GBR 5300	Mark/Susie	Poole YC	3 pts
2	GBR 5233	Taff/Mark	ASA	5 pts
3	GBR 5196	Thomas/Alan	Porthmadog	8 pts
4	GBR 5113	Tom/Alec	RWSC	10 pts
5	GBR 5248	Ade/James	Cargreen SC	16 pts

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – FILEY YC

In an effort to make the Class more inclusive in 2011, The Laser 5000 National Championships were held at Filey SC in North Yorkshire. The stunning venue allowed the 2010 European Champions from Scotland the opportunity to travel to the event covering more or less the same distance as those travelling from the south. The Championships were kindly sponsored by Northampton Sailboats, our equipment supplier. Entrants came from far and wide, with teams from Loch Lomond, Plymouth, Pembrokeshire, Suffolk, North Wales and the centre of England.

After a delay to the start of nearly two hours it soon became apparent as people were launching the boats that the force 4 winds forecast were not a true reflection of the real wind conditions, with a very shifty SW wind blowing at sometimes over 30 knots and the wind continuing to build, the race officer decided to postpone racing for the day. That however didn’t stop Thomas Sauval and Alistair Farman, the 2010 National Champions from getting out onto the water to test their skills. The rest of the fleet watched from the veranda with a nice cool beer!

Sunday however was entirely different, with a start time of 1030, the race officer was very prompt in getting racing underway in a good force 4. The lads from Loch Lomond – Alister Kinsman and Paddy Adler were soon showing the same form that won them the European Championship in 2010 and always seemed to have the edge on the upwind legs resulting in them setting a very large gap between them and the 2nd boat. With the wind dropping to the low end of a force 3 with most people still on their heavy wind settings, but Alister/Paddy had managed to change to light wind set up for Race 2 and scored a bullet, leading right from the start. Thomas and Alistair were pushing hard for 2nd but Taff and Nigel once again showed some blistering speed downwind, managing to hold them off to take 2nd in the race. Ade Bevan-Smith and James Williams managed to show some great upwind speed in the lighter airs and gave everybody a scare as they moved up to 2nd place during the race. However, they were unable to hold their place as Taff/Nigel managed to cut inside them at the upwind mark, closely followed by Mark/Nicky who managed to hold those positions until the finish.

In the final race, Alister and Paddy, having done enough to win the event (with 3 races to count) and with Paddy carrying an injury decided to return to the shore. By this time, Mark and Nicky in GBR 5249 had found their feet and were close to Thomas and Alistair leading, closely followed by Ade and James, who were showing the rest of the fleet how all the training that they’ve been doing in Plymouth really is paying dividends. By this time Taff and Nigel were practically sailing backwards and posted a disappointing 5th place.

Final positions were:

1	GBR 5307	Alister/Paddy	Loch Lomond	4 pts
2	GBR 5231	Thomas/Alistair	GWSC	5 pts
3	GBR 5233	Taff/Nigel	Army SA/Dale YC	8 pts
4	GBR 5249	Mark/Nicky	GWSC	10 pts
5	GBR 5248	Ade/James	Cargreen YC	12 pts
6	GBR 5269	Paul/Ed	GWSC	13 pts
7	GBR 5035	Neil/Ben	Felixstowe Ferry	21 pts
8	GBR 5196	Alan/Ed	Porthmadog  SC	22 pts

OPEN EVENT – LOCH LOMOND SC

The Scots crews from Loch Lomond invited the Association to the Loch Lomond Dinghy Weekend and with the promise of sponsorship from Glengoyne Distillery, the class set off!

The club did a sterling job, with over 103 dinghies entering into a very tight fought and tactical weekend’s racing, with two courses for fast handicap and slow handicap fleets.

Of the Laser 5000 fleet, entries made the effort to drive up from as far as Plymouth, Poole, the Midlands, North Wales, Cambridgeshire, Pembrokeshire and of course Scotland and all were made welcome on the Friday evening by Paddy, the Club barman, Lasagne Cook and Laser 5000 sailor (is that wise making him the barman!?). Boats were assembled; lasagne eaten and beer quaffed on the Friday evening before the rain arrived and the wind disappeared! (Note to self – check tent for leaks before you leave for an event nearly 400 miles away!). The highlight of the weekend for me was seeing GBR 5000 – the original production Laser 5000 once again on the water after a lot of very hard work by Ben - she looked in a great condition considering the state she had been in some 3 months earlier.

Saturday morning presented itself as wet with not much wind; however as the morning progressed and we got into our wetsuits, the clouds began to break and the wind built. At ¾ of an hour before the start, the wind was such that heavy settings were applied and a screaming two sail reach to the start area was much enjoyed! Oh, what a mistake, that was the most of the wind throughout the weekend and it slowly subsided to around a very fluky and hard to read force 2 to 3 at best. However, the Race Officer did a sterling job to lay a course in an ever shifting wind and the races got underway.

The shifting and testing wind conditions became the order of the day, with the Race Officer having to change the course each time between races and those that had applied heavy weather settings at the start of the day began to seriously regret that decision with some boats taking a chance and changing the rig settings on the water- not a move for the feint hearted! However, the dye had been cast, Mark/Susie and Alister/Paddy were showing the rest of the fleet a clean pair if heels and gave brilliant demonstrations of how to keep the boat going in the right direction with speed in the lightest of conditions.

So, after 3 races, it was back to the club for some more beer, fine tales and good food and some stunning views of the Loch and the surrounding hills.

Sunday appeared, but the wind didn’t and in even less wind than the day before, the fleet set off for the race area and the Race Officer decided that there was sufficient (and more consistent) wind to start Race 4.

Now, in light airs, within 30 seconds of the gun, with boats all around and not going fast, it’s never a good idea to gybe away from other boats and expect to be able to accelerate across the line with backed battens, but I tried! Stopping, watching the rest of the fleet get away to a clean start and still being on the wrong side of the line half way through the next fleet’s start sequence is never a good idea and after having a word with myself (with the crew piping in), GBR 5233 managed to get going again! Typically, Mark/Susie were about rounding the upwind mark by this stage, with Ben/Chris (GBR 5000) showing brilliant boat speed in the light conditions not far behind and in real competition with Alister and Paddy, good for them! Alan and Ed in GBR 5196, being quite new to 5000 sailing had just got the hang of making sure that Ed (the crew) was staying well forward in front of the mast, great. What came as a surprise to Alan was that when some wind did come through and Ed not easily able to ‘spring’ out onto the wire that the boat would go from underneath him and so they decided to wash the sails! Still, another lesson learnt. Thankfully, Alan/Alister (GBR 5235) also decided to hang the washing out with a rather tied up kite, which allowed Taff/Ade to squeeze through to take 6th position, which was a real bonus and not expected.

There was no point in trying to run a 6th race and the Race Officer called it a day and we all headed off to the club in the most stunning scenery. Despite the light and fickle winds, the weekend was a great success. The fleet had made the effort to travel a long way to get there, GBR 5000 is back on the water racing, some great Malt Whiskey prizes for the top 5 (thank heavens for that zephyr of wind!) provided by the Glengoyne Distillary, some great hosts and good banter and more boats on the water show that the Laser 5000 fleet is still a force to be reckoned with!.

Final Positions were:
1	GBR 5300	Mark and Susie	Poole YC
2	GBR 5307	Alister and Paddy	Loch Lomond YC
3	GBR 5249	Mark and Nicki	Grafham Water SC
4	GBR 5235	Alan and Alistair	Loch Lomond YC
5	GBR 5233	Taff and Ade	ASA/Dale YC
6	GBR 5000	Ben and Chris	Edgebaston Reservoir SC
7	GBR 5269	Paul and Ed	Grafham Water SC
8	GBR 5196	Alan and Ed	Porthmadog SC

INLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS – RUTLAND WATER SC

The usual final event of the season was the Inland Championships, held during the ‘Laser Classes’ event at Rutland Water.

Three races were held on Saturday in difficult, light and shifty conditions. Race 1 got off to a great start with all five boats in close proximity to each other for the first lap. Thomas Sauvel and Alistair Farman in GBR5231 showed good light air boat speed and handling to win races 1 and 2 with solid starts and well executed tactics, keeping their nerve in race 1 when Mark and Susie Reynell in GBR 5300, only half a boat length astern, headed for the finish after lap four leaving Thomas and Alistair to start another beat. 5300 soon discovered it was a six lap race and re-joined to fight for 2nd with Thomas Lambert and Niall Ferguson in GBR 5301, whilst 5231 had it right and extended their lead to a healthy margin to take the pressure off and seal the victory. 5231 ended the day as overnight leaders, one point clear of 5300.

With another three races scheduled, Sunday dawned to a mirror finish on Rutland Water, allowing competitors the chance to catch some rugby world cup action before the AP was finally lowered as the breeze began to fill in.

By the time race 4 got under way the breeze had built to a solid 10 knots, gusting into the low to mid-teens. Racing on the outer loop of the trapezoidal course, windward and leeward marks were placed within 30m of a parallel shore, making for exciting sailing on a congested race course. Positions changed throughout the fleet, the lead changing between 5231 and 5300, with 5300 eventually getting the bullet.

Race 5 saw closer racing on a course re-laid for the right hand shift in wind direction, moving competitors further away from the shore. 5300 lead from 5231 culminating in a nail biting final close reach to the finish, 5231 holding their kite whilst 5300 chose to go for white sails only. Eventually, a short leg and a couple of badly timed gusts transpired against 5231, securing 5300 the win.

Close racing throughout the weekend meant that settling the final results came down to last race duels between 5231 and 5300 for 1st and 5233 and 5301 for 3rd. Pre-start saw aggressive match race manoeuvring between 5231 and 5300 on a pin end bias line. This theme was continued up the first beat with some close quarter action and matched tacking, with 5233 and 5301 also in the mix.

At the end of the weekend, the final 2011 Inland Championships results are:

1	GBR 5300	Mark/Susie	Poole YC
2	GBR 5231	Thomas/Alistair	Grafham Water SC
3	GBR 5301	Tom/Niall	Draycote Water SC
4	GBR 5233	Taff/Nigel	Army SA/Dale YC
5	GBR 5035	Neil/George	Felixstowe Ferry SC

TRAVERLLERS’ SERIES RESULTS

At the end of the 2011, despite low turn-out in some of the events, a total of 13 boats were seen on the race track, which is an increase of 2 boats on the previous season, indicating a further increase in participation across the fleet. Final placings in the Laser 5000 Travellers’ Series are therefore:

1st	Mark and Susie Reynell	GBR 5300	Pool YC
2nd	Taff Owens/Nigel Simm	GBR 5322	ASA/Dale
3rd	Alister Kinsman/Paddy Adler	GBR 5307	LLSC
4th	Thomas Sauval/Alistair Farman	GBR 5321	GWSC
5th	Mark and Nicky Rushton	GBR 5249	GWSC
6th	Paul Burns/Ed James	GBR 5269	GWSC
6th	Ade Bevan-Smith/James Williams	GBR 5248	Cargeen SC
6th	Alan Moss/ Alastair	GBR5235	LLSC
7th	Neil and George Luckett	GBR 5035	Felixstowe
7th	Ben Julian/ and Chris	GBR 5000	Edgebaston
8th	Tom Hill/Alec	GBR 5113	RWSC
8th	Alan Butler/Ed	GBR 5196	Porthmadog
8th	Niall Ferguson/Tom Lambert	GBR 5301	DraycotT SC

 

2012 Laser 5000 Sailing Programme

The programme for 2012 has been set and the following events will take place:

Training Weekend at Grafham Water – 14th/15th April
Open Event at Grafham Water (During ‘Laser Masters’ event) – 26th/27th May
National Championships at Dale SC – 30 June/1 July (tbc)
European Championships at Plymouth - 23 to 29 July
Open Event in September (TBC)
Inland Championships at Rutland Water SC – Oct

FURTHER RACING

Members of the Association will also be taking part in the SailJuice Series of races which are five major handicap events which constitute this winter's series. They are:

Draycote Dash, Draycote Water Sailing Club
Saturday/Sunday 19/20 November 2011

Grafham Grand Prix, Grafham Water Sailing Club
Monday 2nd January 2012

Bloody Mary, Queen Mary Sailing Club
Saturday 7th January 2012

Steve Nicholson Trophy, Northampton Sailing Club
Saturday 28 January 2012

John Merricks Tiger Trophy, Rutland Sailing Club
Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th February 2012

www.SailJuice.com has teamed up with www.SailRacer.co.uk.

More information about sailing a Laser 5000 can be found on the Class Website at www.Laser5000.org or on the Facebook Forum http://www.facebook.com/groups/340120581959/

 

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