2012 Nationals Information Page
Results , report and pictures for the 2012 nationals held at Champion Lakes , Perth Western Australia.
14&15th April 2012
Report
2012 RC Laser Nationals Report
Perth certainly put on a great weekend of weather for the 14/15 April - typical for WA Autumn - plenty of sun and not too hot. Sometimes there was some wind.... !!!
Eight sailors turned up on Day One with Graham Brown and Jill visiting from Sydney, a visitor from Albany, and a varied field of local RCL sailors. Rod Popham sent his apologies for a late withdrawal from the series as illness sidelined him for the whole weekend.
Everybody was rigged up and got ready to go - only sticking point - NO WIND !!!. Champion Lakes looked like a millpond much to everyone’s disappointment. About 11am a few zephyrs came through enough for our PRO Roger Paul to get a course laid and send the sailors onto the water. With the breeze being patchy you either got it or missed out going around the course - Dave Pruden found some of the patches and won the first race of the day. One more race was held for the morning before the breeze left again for another few hours.
After lunch the breeze filtered back again and the PRO and the team spend a little while getting the course right before getting racing underway in earnest with A rigs the order of the day. While the next 10 races had Graham Brown and Rod Moss sharing the heat wins, Graham was certainly starting to showing the rest of the fleet on how to win a championship with sheer consistency of results !
The breeze really kicked in the last few hours racing for the day and, after the usual downwind pirouettes with the A rigs, everyone made a quick change down to B rigs. The more consistent breeze saw much more controlled racing and different sailors turning up in the first three places for each race including Dave Pruden, Dave Bedford, Ian Sherriff and Rod Moss.
At the end of Day One Graham Brown was leading followed by Dave Pruden Second and Rod Moss third. As the forecast conditions were the same as for Day One, everyone agreed that the event would start at midday on Sunday.
Even with a late start on Day Two there was no wind at the rescheduled start time.
Racing got underway a little later as a light breeze trickled in, stopped, changed direction, and stopped leaving a few sailors stranded on the final leg to the finish. This was the case for the next few races as the breeze came in and out changing direction.
Finally around 2pm the breeze finally came back and settled into a good A rig breeze. The steadier breeze saw good results from Dave Pruden, Ian Sheriff and Dave Bedford... and the ever consistent Graham Brown. Dave Bedford had the honour of winning the last heat of the championship !
After 24 Races in trying conditions Graham Brown was the well deserved winner with Dave Pruden second and Rod Moss, in Cliff’s ever successful 10 year old loan boat, in third place
All sailors agreed that the championship were sailed in good spirit with great sportsmanship and also expressed their disappointment at the general lack of eastern states support for this national RC Laser event.
Perth certainly put on a great weekend of weather for the 14/15 April - typical for WA Autumn - plenty of sun and not too hot. Sometimes there was some wind.... !!!
Eight sailors turned up on Day One with Graham Brown and Jill visiting from Sydney, a visitor from Albany, and a varied field of local RCL sailors. Rod Popham sent his apologies for a late withdrawal from the series as illness sidelined him for the whole weekend.
Everybody was rigged up and got ready to go - only sticking point - NO WIND !!!. Champion Lakes looked like a millpond much to everyone’s disappointment. About 11am a few zephyrs came through enough for our PRO Roger Paul to get a course laid and send the sailors onto the water. With the breeze being patchy you either got it or missed out going around the course - Dave Pruden found some of the patches and won the first race of the day. One more race was held for the morning before the breeze left again for another few hours.
After lunch the breeze filtered back again and the PRO and the team spend a little while getting the course right before getting racing underway in earnest with A rigs the order of the day. While the next 10 races had Graham Brown and Rod Moss sharing the heat wins, Graham was certainly starting to showing the rest of the fleet on how to win a championship with sheer consistency of results !
The breeze really kicked in the last few hours racing for the day and, after the usual downwind pirouettes with the A rigs, everyone made a quick change down to B rigs. The more consistent breeze saw much more controlled racing and different sailors turning up in the first three places for each race including Dave Pruden, Dave Bedford, Ian Sherriff and Rod Moss.
At the end of Day One Graham Brown was leading followed by Dave Pruden Second and Rod Moss third. As the forecast conditions were the same as for Day One, everyone agreed that the event would start at midday on Sunday.
Even with a late start on Day Two there was no wind at the rescheduled start time.
Racing got underway a little later as a light breeze trickled in, stopped, changed direction, and stopped leaving a few sailors stranded on the final leg to the finish. This was the case for the next few races as the breeze came in and out changing direction.
Finally around 2pm the breeze finally came back and settled into a good A rig breeze. The steadier breeze saw good results from Dave Pruden, Ian Sheriff and Dave Bedford... and the ever consistent Graham Brown. Dave Bedford had the honour of winning the last heat of the championship !
After 24 Races in trying conditions Graham Brown was the well deserved winner with Dave Pruden second and Rod Moss, in Cliff’s ever successful 10 year old loan boat, in third place
All sailors agreed that the championship were sailed in good spirit with great sportsmanship and also expressed their disappointment at the general lack of eastern states support for this national RC Laser event.