Bala sc held its third Blaze Open meeting over the May Day Bank holiday
weekend. 12 boats entered including 4 visitors. The weather was dominated by
strong winds of F3-5 on the Saturday and F4-6 on the Sunday with the wind
coming from a southerly direction the whole time which meant that it came
over the surrounding hills producing both strong gusts and marked wind
shifts, particularly along the southerly side of the lake. After some
unanimous pleas to John Beare, the race officer, courses for Sunday were set
avoiding this side of the lake and also avoiding the potluck nature of
sailing in the unpredictable conditions.

The first race got away cleanly, as did all six races of the series, with no
recalls. The start line had a strong port bias, as it frequently did during
the series, tempting a few to attempt a port tack start which paid dividends
to those who succeeded! Dave Evans powered impressively up the first one
mile beat and was first to the windward mark but closely pursued by Ralph
Jones and Gary Darch. The order was maintained down to the windward mark but
Ralph was caught out by the flukey winds on the southerly side of the lake
and capsized leaving the way clear for Dave Evans to claim first place and
Gary second. This closely contested racing between Ralph, Gary and Dave
continued for the rest of the day with 1st, 2nd, 3rd going to one or the
other with the day ending with Dave Evans in the lead with two 1sts and a
2nd. Peter Barlow performed consistently well and achieved three 4ths.

By Sunday conditions were bright and sunny but wind strength had picked up
to 4-5. The first race was a closely fought battle between Dave Evans and
Ralph Jones for 1st and 2nd respectively. Peter Barlow, using the latest
prototype Hyde sail sailed impressively to claim 3rd. For the second race
Peter was flying again claiming second place and pushing Dave Evans into
third. The third race of the day was going to be the decider for the Open.
It was by far the windiest race of the Open and was sailed in F5-6 gusting
F7. Most boats were sailing for safety and were sailing downwind by
broadreaching then tacking rather than run the risk of nosediving by trying
to run downwind. Only four boats completed the race including Gary Darch and
Ben Prytherch both of whom had only sailed a Blaze for 3and 6 weeks
respectively! After being caught out by some treacherous gusts Dave Evans
was forced to retire giving Ralph Jones the final race and the Open.

Overall Results:

1st Ralph Jones Bala SC,
2nd Dave Evans Calshot SC,
3rd Gary Darch Bala SC,
4th Peter Barlow Burghfield SC,
5th Ben Prytherch Pembrokeshire YC

Pics from Iain Pendry