3:40pm Thursday 21st July 2005
By Dennis Aris
FIFTEEN Royal Windermere Yacht Club 17-foot yachts lined up near Henholme, in the north lake, in a light north-westerly breeze.
Chameleon, sailed by Chas and Roger Ingham, took an early lead from the port end of the line and boats quickly spread across the lake searching for the best winds.
Chameleon rounded the first mark at FBA North well ahead of the chasing fleet followed by Paul Harkness and Jeff Houghton's Niaid & Les Gorton's Snark 11.
At the second mark at Adelaide, nine of the boats arrived within three boat lengths of each other and there was much calling to establish the rounding order.
Somehow Jamie Baron's Mistral sailing on a port tack and with no rounding rights, managed to squeeze into a gap which barely existed, from which he moved from the rear of the chasing pack to the front.
After two circuits of the fairly long course Chameleon took the Vice Commodore's prize with Niaid in second place, Snark 11 third and Gay Crossley's Whisper fourth.
Classic yacht result: 1 Niaid, 2 Snark 11, 3 Whisper.
On Sunday four yachts set out in beautiful conditions in the South lake. A constant southerly wind gave Whisper a chance to show her paces and she gained revenge on Niaid by winning with James Baron in Mistral second and Niaid third. The rivalry in the classic fleet is hotting up. Niaid is leading the classic boat average while Whisper leads the classic points.
n For Saturday's race for the Vice Commodore's Prize a light, northerly breeze sent the RWYC's Flying Fifteen fleet to Wray, with zig-zags back down to Adelaide, before a shorter triangle to Belle Grange and Fisherfield.
Michael Bentley and David Stone in Folly led from the start, but were overtaken at the first mark by Andrew Kirk and Helen Ginsberg in Zephyr, followed by David Brockbank and Rob Parfitt in Five, Frank Kelly and Doug Douglass in Fiscal Folly and John Wright and Roger Brown in Ffreebooter II.
As the breeze held, Zephyr kept the lead over the first part of the run back down the lake, but Five took over in first place after Sandy Nab, and held on to win from Fiscal Folly, with Freebooter II third and first classic boat.
Result: 1 D. Brockbank & R. Parfitt, Five; 2 F. Kelly & D. Douglass. Fiscal Folly; 3 J. Wright & R. Brown, Freebooter II.
Stronger sunshine, and less wind on Sunday led to the choice of a short, south lake course, based on Storrs, Ash Landing and Dan buoy.
Five led a good fleet round the windward mark, followed by Andrew Kirk and Litton Ledger in Zephyr and Michael Bentley and John Barker in Folly.
The first three boats kept up the contest throughout the race, with close racing and frequent place changes.
After two final laps with the three boats neck-and-neck, Folly was first with Zephyr second and Five third.
Result: 1 M. Bentley & John Barker. Folly; 2 A. Kirk & L. Ledger, Zephyr; 3 D. Brockbank & R. Parfitt. Five.
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