The Monday evening series part one finished at the end of the 2 nd race on June 19 th . It was run over 14 races in total. 60 helms entered the series and sailed at least once. 55% of entries achieved a full series, (we sail with a 50% discard). The average turnout per race was 28 boats – I don’t think any of the club’s other fleets can match this. This represents 46% of the total entry and it should be remembered that in addition, there always is, on the water, one fleet member involved in the race team, and sometimes two. They have been excluded from these figures.

The average turnout per boat was seven races (for this calculation, race duties were included). Four sailors: Courtenay Suckling, Chris Walley, Pete Taylor and Trevor Annells managed a 100% turnout. Given the nature of the last two races of the series, I think BZs should be handed out to them.

There can’t be many people who don’t know that Courtenay has won this series – not if they drink at PYC anyway that is! But you may not be aware of some of the other prize winners, so here they are:

2017 Monday Evening Part 1 : Prize Winners

The 14 races that we had produced 8 different winners:

However, just to show that it isn’t plain sailing for anyone on Monday night’s take a look at this table which shows the best and worst results of our top ten sailors in the series:

Definitely a case of ‘how are the mighty fallen’, I think!

14 females entered the series: an entry of 14 sailors of any gender would mark a good open event for some clubs! The podium places were taken by Ann K, Becky W, and Sheila B in gold, silver and bronze respectively. At least two of the others have justifiable claims for injury recovery explaining their absence from the podium.

Increasingly popular on the main circuit is the Masters series of events. For those of you too young to know (or care), these events are divided by age category but all sailed together. The categories are:

If you are 34 you are allowed to sail in these events but you can’t win a prize. If you are under 34, you’ve won the best prize anyway!

So, if we use these categories, we can produce another list of winners. However, since these awards are age dependent, some sensitive D.O.B. checking is going to have to be carried out before they are officially ratified!

Masters Prize Winners

1st Apprentice Master Courtenay Suckling
1st Master Peter Taylor
1st Grand Master Ann Keates
1st Great Grand Master Stuart Bromidge (I’m dead if I’ve got you too old Stuart!)
1st Legend Still up for grabs

It has become an increasingly frequent sight to see Radial rigged Lasers out on a Monday night. Our home-based fleet rules permit the changing of rigs unless you are a prize winner (in which case your results will be split which normally means you don’t have a series – but not always because of our 50% discard rule. The benefit of this is that quite a few sailors (I count myself in their number), are happier to go out in stronger winds by ‘dropping down’ a rig), thus keeping up numbers on the water. However, this year, more people have decided to sail the Radial rig full time whatever the wind strength. This gives rise to our last prize winner: Harry Cowell – 1st Radial.

So, once again it has been a successful series. As we look forward to Part II (first two races already sailed), it’s a good opportunity to review a couple of things. One of the strengths of Monday night sailing is the friendly relaxed atmosphere. That doesn’t mean thought that rule breaking should be ignored. I think it is particularly important that our better sailors should be seen to observe penalties for rule breaking since for them breaking a rule is often intentional! Sailors who don’t have quite such good control over their boat could arguably be given a little more leeway but not if they are seeking to gain an advantage by so doing. It has to be said that it is a more regular sight to see people doing a penalty turn than in previous seasons (remember – on Monday nights you only have to do a 360).

One area that has got a little messy is the Gate Boat start. If someone is in a tricky position with nowhere to go, it might be a good idea to give them room. But if that should happen, the boat being given room should do a 360 at the first opportunity, even if this means stopping your boat. Any boat that interferes with the Gate Boat will be disqualified by the Race Officer if they are identified. If you are not sure about Gate Boat starting, there is some advice on our web-site.

Big Monday was a big success, which has given the part II series a great start. It would be fantastic to continue with this improvement in our already strong turn-out figures. In Part I, 31/60 sailors managed to sail half the races or better – scope for improvement I think! An average turnout of 30 boats per race sounds good doesn’t it? Maybe even good enough to persuade Mark to get the fleet’s raffle ticket book out again!

JK (scorer for Monday night series)