LWA Summer Series Event 4 Sat 13 June -  Bewl

     We were pleasantly surprised on arriving at Bewl Valley to find that there was more wind than the five or six knots forecasted, in fact by the third race we were enjoying something like 11 or 12 knots at times.
     26 sailors turned out to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, including a number of old friends from the South-East in the shape of Mike Henderson, Alan Marriott, David Milton, Gerald Stock and Glyn and Jane Volans. James Grimsley was also back on the water and at the other end of the spectrum the Kents’ two daughters, Emily and Rebecca made their racing debut! Paul Ridley started the day on his Bic Bamba Raceboard but the improving wind after lunch tempted him to risk an ill-advised outing on his formula board - great to see him having a go however!
   The RO set us a box course taking in most of the central part of the reservoir, and the swinging wind direction made the correct choice of line end a tricky one, especially when it swung in the last thirty seconds before the gun!
     Race One found Chris Gibson crossing the line in first place when a cruel windshift pushed Rob Kent back into second, Andy Lacy taking third. By a strange coincidence this was also how they finished overall on the day.  Race Two saw Rob back in the top slot and Chris crossed the line in fifth with Andy Lacy, James Grimsley and Nick Kidd ahead of him. Chris was once again ahead in Race Three with Rob close behind, and Alan Jackson enjoying his best finish of the day in third.
     At the very sharp end of the fleet Chris Gibson and Rob Kent had fought a very personal duel which came down to the last race, however a port/starboard incident led to a protest and to Rob’s eventual retirement, leaving Chris two points clear. Andy Lacy filled third place ahead of Annette Kent.
     All the way down the fleet there were some very close duels, Nick Kidd and James Grimsley, Alan Jackson and Bill Keeling and especially between our two Techno sailors, Andrew Robinson and Conor Wells, who finished on exactly the same points, with Andrew taking it on the last race.

RESULTS:(overalls in brackets)

RACEBOARD:
1:Chris Gibson (1); 2:Rob Kent(2); 3:Andy Lacy (3) 4: James Grimsley (5)
1st Vet:Alan Jackson (6); 1st Lady:Annette Kent (8)

Raceboard 7.5:
1: Glyn Volans (14)

UNLIMITED:
1:Nick Kidd (4)

TECHNO 7.8:
1:Andrew Robinson(22); 2: Conor Wells (23)

4.5: 1: Emily Kent           3.5: 1: Rebecca Kent