Ripon Laser Open 20th September

What a turnout! The Laser Open on Saturday 20 September at RSC saw a grand total of 29 boats – the largest turnout for a single event in the 2008 Northern circuit so far. Although we were down on Ripon boats compared with last year’s staggering twenty-one RSC Lasers, we did attract a lot more visitors, sixteen in all. Compared with last year’s gusts of 45mph, this year’s Open offered us a mere ruffle of a breeze but, hey, the sun shone with W2W blue skies.

Dovestone swept the leader board overall with 1st,2nd and 3rd places; 1st overall going to Ian Jones with a clean sweep of three firsts. Andy Benn was first Ripon boat, taking 4th place – had Andy not taken a dip from an overenthusiastic roll tack he would have toppled Northern Travellers Series organizer Ian Lees from 3rd place. First Senior went to RSC’s Richard Brook in 9th place and first Junior to RSC’s Jamie Rutherford in 11th place. First Youth went to Jonathan Holt of Ulley. Interestingly the fleet split into two in all three races. So closely fought was the racing that there were clusters of boats finishing within 3-4 points of each other.