IN VERY different sailing conditions over the past week, the Royal Windermere Yacht Club’s dinghy and Flying Fifteen fleets have experienced interesting weather challenges.

On Thursday evening, Gavin Tullett took first place in the dinghy handicap race in his Laser.

The race was held in excellent conditions between thunderstorms and late evening rain.

Gavin pulled away from the start, although a shift in the wind to the east allowed John Richardson in his RS100 a long quick reach in the second lap with his asymmetric spinnaker achieving a second place result just 43 seconds behind Gavin. Vying for third place were Simon McVey and Amanda Wilson (both in GP14s), with Simon beating Amanda by only five seconds.

Although unplaced on Thursday, John Pawson made headlines in both of Sunday’s dinghy races. For the first of Sunday’s dinghy races, race officer Steve Bewsher set a triangle course in the north lake but the lack of wind brought the race to an early end after one lap. Nigel Hutchinson in his Solo “Ultra SONIC” took first place, followed closely by John Pawson in his GP 14 “Horizon”, then Mark Hillman in his Laser in third place.

The breeze then picked up nicely and the second dinghy race of the day proved very exciting. Still in the North Lake, the race officer up-anchored and changed the course to the east side.

Having just capsized between races, Nigel Hutchinson managed to recover enough to start the second race on time.

John Pawson sailed brilliantly and led the race from the start. He maintained his lead throughout, despite competition from the somewhat ‘soggy Hutchinson’, who came in second.

Keith Owen and Kathryn Moss (sailing their GP 14 “Smarties”) came third. Keith and Kathryn credit their third place success to the rigging and tuning course and advice on spinnaker work which Nigel Hutchinson had run in the morning.

Meanwhile, Sunday also saw the Flying Fifteens out. In the first race in very light winds, Julian Newman and Amanda Wilson in “Felix Felicis” and Frank Kelly in “Factor 15” had good starts.

“Felix Felicis” pulled away but, as the breeze died down, “Factor 15” seemed to have their own wind and went into the lead which the crew maintained. “Felix Felicis” came second. “Ffloozie” (Adam Crowley) and “Firebolt” (Michelle Kay/Paul Langley) were close competitors for third place, which was taken by “Ffloozie”.

In the second Flying Fifteens race on Sunday, the breeze had really picked up. Julian Newman/Amanda Wilson took full advantage of this in “Felix Felicis” and won the race by almost a leg. Frank Kelly came in second in “Factor 15” and Adam Crowley in “Ffloozie” third.