Noble Marine Laser Radial Autumn Qualifier at Hayling Island Sailing Club, 24–25 October

By Ben Elvin

The final Laser Qualifier of the year was held at Hayling Island Sailing Club with 85 sailors making the journey to settle their places in the rankings for 2015. With a fleet size just on the borderline of needing to be split to make the start line manageable, the sailors’ preferred option of racing as one fleet was taken by the Race Committee and a trapezoid course was set in Hayling Bay just to the south of the channel.

With the initially strong southerly breeze set to drop, rain squalls forecast and a swing in direction to the west due to happen at some point during the day, conditions were set to be tricky.

The first start got away on time and at the first attempt, to the surprise of some of the fleet who were expecting a recall and were caught out. The breeze had already started to drop, and, with rain visible in the distance, there was an important call to be made about an impending shift. It was Ellie Cumpsty who made the best call, opting to take some transoms to get over to the right-hand side of the beat and calling the layline perfectly as the breeze shifted right. Those who opted for the pin end or held their lane up the first third of the beat were unable to get across and lost out badly. Jamie Calder, having made a great start at the Committee Boat end and also heading right, got to the first mark in the chasing pack and used his good downwind speed to pull clear.

Up the second beat, it was again the right-hand side that paid, with another right shift taking over towards the top third of the beat. Those who tried to take a hitch to the left looking for small gains were punished.

In Race 2, Calder again made a solid start at the Committee Boat end, and despite a small left shift halfway up the first beat looking like it would allow those who were working the middle of the course to cross, it was short lived and the right came in again strongly.

London 2012 Gold Medallist Lijia Xu, now a familiar face at the Radial Qualifiers, was also working the right-hand side, with Xu and Calder battling for the lead towards the top of the beat. With the large waves and lighter breeze, there were big gains to be made by those who had good downwind technique and could link together sets of waves, and ultimately Xu showed her class and pulled away to take the win with Daniel Whiteley taking a creditable third place behind Calder.

The first attempt at starting Race 3 resulted in a late postponement after a hard-right shift at the Committee Boat end on what was looking like a fairly port-biased line (probably to the relief of the few boats lining up a port tack start at the pin).

At the second attempt, there was a left shift in the final minute which made the pin end heavily favoured, and the majority of the fleet opted to tack onto port immediately after the start. Those who had been conservative in the middle of the line immediately saw the danger and tacked out to try and be the first to reach a shift back to the right, should it appear. Unfortunately it never did, and with the left gaining further, those who started towards the pin made big gains. Xu called it perfectly and led comfortably, chased again by Calder and Whiteley. Xu extended her lead all the way round the course, winning by a significant distance.

On Sunday morning, with a welcome extra hour in bed due to the clock change, the sailors were greeted with glassy water and smoke rising vertically. After an initial postponement and with a 2p.m. cut-off time, it looked like racing was extremely unlikely so the decision was made to abandon racing for the day. Despite Calder’s impressive consistency in Saturday’s difficult conditions, with one discard, it was Xu who took the win with two first places.

Results:

1 Lijia Xu, 2pts

2 Jamie Calder, 4pts

3 Daniel Whiteley, 6pts

Full results:

http://www.kbsuk.com/laser/events/showrace.asp?EventID=79&RaceURL=%5Bsail100%5D/haylingrad.2015nh.html