Results / Winter Championships Leigh & Lowton SC - 17/03/2012

The RS 600 Fat Face circuit at Lee-on-the-Solent SC was greeted by warm sunshine and a light breeze. Racing was delayed slightly while the fleet waited for the sea breeze to arrive and eventually it cautiously came in from the south east. The fleet started and was led around the first mark by Andy Heissig who built a comfortable lead from James Sainsbury. After the first lap though, the south westerly sea breeze started to fill in which allowed the fleet to close the gap on Heissig, as the course was reversed and the beat turned in to a run. Heissig managed to hold on to the win from Sainsbury with Jon Powell in third.

In the second race the breeze filled in and picked up from the south west. A slight bit of confusion occurred on the first beat as the leaders started heading for the second mark before realising the mistake. Sainsbury led and sailed well to win comfortably from Jamie Mawson. Heissig won the final race of the day with Mawson 2nd and Guy Lonsdale in 3^rd.

Sunday morning was sunny again and with a light south easterly breeze racing started on time. Lonsdale port tacked the fleet and led unchallenged for the rest of the race. Mawson finished ahead of Heissig to close things up overall. While Lonsdale capsized on the start of the penultimate race, Mawson went on to win and tie with Heissig for the overall lead going in to the final race. Chris Flewitt led around the first mark ahead of Heissig, who was followed closely by Mawson. These two overtook Flewitt down the run and Mawson managed to take the lead on the next beat. Mawson led and looked set to win overall but, with the breeze picking up, Heissig managed to squeeze in to the lead around the final mark. The two were neck and neck coming in to the finish with Mawson getting a well timed surge over the line to take the race by millimetres and win event overall. Sainsbury sailed well to pick up third with Lonsdale in 4^th and Powell in 5th

Thanks goes to Lee-on-the Solent Sailing club for such a well organised event and to Fat Face for sponsoring the event. The next stop is down the coast to Weston before what will be a fantastic Eurocup event at Travemunder Week in Germany.