Brad Hein wins South Australian RC Laser titles


May 3, 2023

The SA RC Laser titles were run at Mawson Lakes on the weekend of April 29/30 in light conditions with a fleet of 19 boats from 4 states. The title favorites of Brad Hein and Peter Burton didn’t disappoint but local sailor Tony White in one of his first forays into the Laser world with a borrowed boat, really stirred up the competition.

The first race, which I won featured winds which were on the upper margin of A rigs and local sailors including Tony chose A rigs while most of the visitors selected B rigs. However, with a slight increase in SW wind speed at the beginning of race two 4-5 sailors downsized to B rigs. But not Tony. He stuck with his A rig and won the next two races. It was quite obvious that Tony’s larger A rig was advantageous in the tightly contested starts and his two wins soon had Brad and Peter running for their A rigs. Brad then proceeded to claim a string of four wins while Peter Elverd had gear problems. In the meantime Garry Polomka was quietly putting together a series of good races and finished day 1 in fifth place.

20230502_laser1Garry Polomka, Peter Lee and Darren Cathie at very close quarters on Saturday Photo by Gerry Geibel.

The starts were difficult all day and with light airs getting clear wind was absolutely critical. As a result some of the heavy weather specialists like Grant Gillespie and Peter Lee struggled. John Halloran from Queensland was always up in the top third of the fleet and had some good results later in the day.

Sunday proved to be a difficult day with very light northerly winds. Only two races could be conducted before light drizzle set in killing of the last remnants of breeze. The first race saw a very spread out field with Brad, Peter and Peter Yates getting a big lead over the remaining boats. The final race was very challenging with the lead changing many times with at one stage a group of 6-7 boats catching up to the 3 leaders. I led on several occasions and was fortunate to pick the upwind mark at the leeward gate and then in very light airs I managed to beat Peter Burton by a nose.

Overall the series was sailed in the usual good spirits that we have come to expect from RC Laser events. Stewart Ross ran an excellent series and his firm hand in making decisions was appreciated by all. Len Hearing and Lindsay Sawyer were observers assisting Stewart. Lorraine Berry, Rose Ross and Ross Bessell were our trustworthy scorers for the event. Bob Whitehead and Lindsay Sawyer conducted measuring of boats. Brian Marshall, Garry Loughead, John Moore and Dean Bonnett staffed the recovery boat. Meredith Reardon and Gaynor Kouwenhoven kept us all fed and watered. John Berry was the organiser in charge of this successful event.

Adrian Heard

20230502_laser2Nineteen sailors from four states, with RO Stewart Ross far left. Photo by Janet Lee

 

Results


PosName/ClubSail No.NettTotal
1Brad Hein
PORTLAND
AUS 33319.048.0
2Peter Burton
FORSTER TUNCURRY
AUS 19031.059.0
3Tony White
SAILING @ LIGHTSVIEW
AUS 27950.085.0
4Adrian Heard
MAWSON LAKES MYC (SA)
AUS 39251.075.0
5Garry Polomka
MAWSON LAKES MYC (SA)
AUS 18453.077.0
6John Halloran
SUNSHINE COAST
AUS 39956.086.0
7Darren Cathie
PLRMYC
AUS 29767.097.0
8Peter Elverd
WSC
AUS 31470.0108.0
9Peter Yates
PLRMYC
AUS 18985.0120.0
10Peter Lee
PLRMYC
AUS 8286.0123.0
11Gary Hein
PORTLAND
AUS 34288.0122.0
12Grant Gillespie
PLRMYC
AUS 4992.0124.0
13Mervyn McDonald
PLRMYC
AUS 252114.0148.0
14Neville Hank
WSC
AUS 326120.0157.0
15Bob Whitehead
MAWSON LAKES MYC (SA)
AUS 259122.0158.0
16Mark Easton
MAWSON LAKES MYC (SA)
AUS 42126.0162.0
17Liam Harper
PORTLAND
AUS 282141.0176.0
18Don Turnbull
MAWSON LAKES MYC (SA)
AUS 55144.0184.0
19Peter White
SOUTH EASTERN HILLS MYC
AUS 321146.0185.0

Category: South Australia
Posted by: ARYA Publicity