Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club

Photo: Graham Knox

Richard and Heather Marsh round the first mark in the lead

In the words of one competitor, it was a cracking day on the water on Sunday 5 March as the season started at Hollingworth Lake Sailing Club.

In the cool north westerly off the Lakebank shore, there was less wind than forecast. The numbers racing might have been low but there was quality in the racing and close results.

Richard and Heather Marsh, in their RS400, were in good form and won the first race, with the Solos of Martin Brennan and Nick Hornsby behind a few seconds apart from each other.

Young Xavier Bramwell was not far behind on handicap either in fourth place in his Topper.

In the second race, conditions suited the Solos better taking the win and runner up places. Richard and Heather Marsh finished third after two other RS400s were chasing them. These two boats were in the hands of Chris Massey with Tom Daniel and Nick Brook with Rhiann Bramwell trying their hands in boats with asymmetric spinnakers.

Normal service was resumed in the third race with a win for the Marshes and Martin Brennan taking the runner up spot ahead Nick Hornsby. Junior sailors Millie Hayfield and Lauren Marsh deserve a mention for racing in a RS Feva XL, a smaller version of the adult’s boat.

Over the weekend, 15-year-old Jasper Bramwell raced in the Topper Winter Championship at Weymouth in a fleet of over 100 boats, sailed by Juniors.

After a slow start in the five race series, Jasper went on to take a top five place in four races, placing him seventh overall (he led the last race to the final leg) in a very close competition with just four points separating the top seven boats. This was an outstanding result.