GEORGE NEWS - In great contrast to recent sailing days for George Lakes Yacht Club (GLYC), racing for the finals for the GLYC Sotheby's Trophy took place in cold, wet conditions with a strong, gusty south-westerly wind.

As this type of weather had been forecast, it was only the few dedicated sailors who turned up to participate and only eight boats sailed.

Two races were completed, in a wind varying from 10 to 16 knots. In the first race, the Fireball of David Laing and Anthony Alant got it together to pull well ahead of the rest. 

They finished four minutes ahead of the leading Laser, Matthew de Villiers.

De Villiers was doing well against the non-trapeze boats, but had the Dabchick of Conrad Holm in close pursuit. Further behind were the Lasers of Henry Paine and Malcolm Osborne.

In the second race, the Laing Fireball was once again in the lead at the first mark, but capsised near the end of the next leg. 

A spinnaker wrap around the mast prompted them to retire from the race. This left just two Lasers and a Dabchick in the race. 

De Villiers was first to finish, with the Holm Dabchick not too far behind. Osborne was the only other finisher.

The Fireball of Laing and Alant was the winner on handicap of the first race, ahead of Holm and De Villiers. Holm was the winner of the second race, ahead of De Villiers and Osborne. This made him the winner of the day.

Just one race was sailed on the first set of races for the Sotheby's Trophy. With a total of three races for this trophy, the winner was De Villiers, who sailed a GP14 in the previous race with Chris du Toit, while the runner-up was Osborne who also sailed a GP14 in the previous race with Daniel Kruger.

For more information about George Lakes Yacht Club, see its website or like its Facebook page, GLYC.

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