The West Kirby SC IC open enjoyed good weather; lightish winds on Saturday and F3 to low F4 on Sunday with temperatures much warmer than of late.
Five visiting IC’s joined six from the home club for the event though this could have been two more if the Marston’s had been successful in their work to complete the first FRP Slurp; there was a bit of rig swapping from another Slurp which went wrong at the last minute.
Race 1 was part of the club’s long distance race which took the fleet across the Dee Estuary to Wales then up the estuary towards Flint then back to finish off West Kirby. A planned lead boat failed to materialise resulting with a problem for most skippers of not really knowing where they were going. It’s fair to say that most IC’s sailed round a lot of marks, not necessarily the right marks or in the right order but they covered a considerable distance. There were no protests and the RO declared a result. Best to leave it at that except to say that we won’t do that again next year. Colin Brown found his way back to the finish line first followed by Rob Bell and Chris Gaskin from the home club third. Colin commented that although he ‘got away’ from the rest before the first mark he was also lucky to find his own private wind coming off the Welsh hills when he got over to the Welsh side.
The SI’s indicated that some ‘Novelty Racing’ might be possible on the West Kirby Marine Lake. This came to be on Sunday morning. The south easterly wind provided the opportunity for a windward leeward course. Though this racing was a bit of fun and couldn’t be included in the open event series it was useful for boat handling practise. Colin again showed superior speed but failed to go round a mark the right way so the overall Novelty Lake Racing went to Simon Allen.
A quick refuelling by skippers followed by trolleying their IC’s on to the estuary slip way and out for races 2 and 3 on the estuary in the afternoon.
Colin won race 2 comfortably with Rob Bell taking second. Chris Gaskin in an original Slurp (the one that won the World Championships in 1975) got a great port tack start and cleared the fleet and Chris kept sailing well to take third. John Ellis on his new own design ‘Horizon Job’ had been having a few teething problems in earlier races but sorted them out and won the last race. Colin, after a poor start had enough speed to make it through the fleet to take second place. Perham Harding grabbed a third from Simon Allen who finished fourth. The south easterly breeze was replaced by a north westerly sea breeze during this last race which was interesting with periods of nothing followed by some significant blasts usually when approaching the windward mark which had just become a gybe mark!
The idea of holding the WKSC IC open early in the year was to give those entering for the Worlds a chance at sailing in similar conditions to SF. There was just a taste of that in the last race with a fierce chop setting up with the ebb and the 180 degree wind shift. Canoes going to the worlds get loaded into the container in July. 4 of the 5 visitors are entered for the worlds.
