GEORGE SAILING NEWS - The second series of races for the Realty Homenet (senior fleet) and the Tom's Tavern Trophy (junior fleet) took place at the George Lakes Yacht Club on Sunday.
There was a good turnout, aided by several youngsters commencing their campaign in the Tera classes for the upcoming Tera World Championships, to be held on Swartvlei Lagoon, Sedgefield.
A light south-easter (8 to 10 knots) provided good sailing conditions, but frequent wind shifts made things difficult.
In the first race the Dart 18 of Hans Delport and the Fireball of David Laing and Anthony Alant were able to pull away from the rest of the fleet, but a rigging problem caused delay for the Fireball. They were able to retake the mono hull lead, but suffered on handicap as a result of the delay.
Henry Paine had a comfortable lead ahead of the Lasers with Malcolm Osborne, recovering from a late start, passing the rest of the fleet to be the second Laser. Next to finish were the Dabchicks, sailed by Jordyn Soldin and Conrad Holm.
In the second race the Dart 18 was able to establish a lead of nearly two minutes ahead of the Fireball, that similarly had a lead of over two minutes on the leading Laser, once again Henry Paine.
Osborne had overtaken Paine briefly during the race, but lost the lead soon afterwards.
The Fireball of David Laing and Anthony Alant approaching the weather mark on the beat, with Henry Paine ahead in his Laser.
In the third race of the day the wind strength faded, to the disadvantage of Delport. Henry Paine was once again the leading Laser, to score a clean sheet of firsts for the entire series. Paul Thornton and Brian Musto were the next dinghy finishers, on their Lasers, with the Dabchicks suffering in the lighter wind.
In the junior fleet Sean Vonk, on his Tera Pro, was consistently ahead. Among the Tera Sports, Luca Lutolf had the edge over Ayden Gething, with JP Buys in third place.
For more information about George Lakes Yacht Club, see its website, www.glyc.org.za or like its Facebook page, GLYC.
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