topper oppie open

Topper and Oppie Open 2010

The weather forecast for the weekend was magnificent – Mediterranean sunshine, hot summer temperatures and clear blue skies. Unless you are looking to host a sailing event, when the indicated 2 to 3 mph breezes were not encouraging. Notts County has a reputation for putting on great Open events, and in particular in delivering very pleasant spectating conditions, a friendly atmosphere, good sustenance and a great sailing location so we had a lot to live up to. With everything in place it seemed only a wind no-show was going to get in the way of the combined Topper and Optimist Midland Travellers living up to the reputation.

The forecast did its worst and led to smaller than expected fleets, the Toppers delivering 20 boats when 30 might have been expected – of which 4 were from NCSC, and 3 Optimists making a race of it, 1 from NCSC. John Henderson, the Race Officer for the day, looked to have an enormous challenge on to get 3 races in on a lake where the breeze was patchy, variable and fitful and immediately promised a postponement. However, a predominantly NE’ly 5 to 6 to 0 mph breeze became established enough to get two races in before lunch. Both were tense affairs with luck, or perhaps good judgement, determining who moved ahead and the lead changed a number of time. Local sailor, Lawrence Logan, lead for the first part of the Topper race 1 but eventually lost out to another local, Peter Anderson, who sailed a great race to cross the line first. The second race was equally close amongst the leading bunch and it was all still wide open at lunchtime. With only 3 boats the Optimist sailors had to concentrate on boat speed and positioning on the lake to make progress, all guaranteed a top end position!

John cleverly got the fleets out again quickly after lunch to catch the remaining breeze, a clean start and a definite left hand side advantage up to the first mark created a front breakaway group who held on during a long race in testing light wind conditions. Dan Venables from Sutton SC was not able to improve on his 2nd and 1st places from the morning races but the discard meant these were enough to win him the event for the Toppers.

Some competitive racing amongst the Optimists led to their overall winner being Georgina Booth, all the way down from Scaling Dam (near Whitby), with Andy Kilburn (NCSC) in second and Tom Fenemore in 3rd. The Topper fleet was packed out with national and zones level training squad members so the two other local sailors found the going hard in the tricky conditions where new boats and new sails could clearly be seen to be an advantage. The NCSC Topper specialists, Lawrence and Peter, were competitive, coming 3rd and 7th overall.

So in the end, the worries were put to rest, the event was completed to everyone’s satisfaction and the Commodore and his glamorous assistant were able to hand out a set of great glassware and prizes, courtesy of the club, Morton Boats and Purple Marine.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the day, and we look forward to pulling more NCSC juniors through for future events. James Logan