Cymraeg Laser Open National Championships 2015 - Mounts Bay Sailing Club Aug1st-7th
Gethin Owen and Iago Davies competed in the Open Laser NationalChampionships at Mounts Bay. Gethin entered the 4.7 and Iago entered the Radial class. Mounts Bay is an extremly picturesque tidal bay with the race course based between Penzance and Marazion. During the week all conditions were present from extremly windy days with 3m swells to light shifty tactical racing.
On the first day Gethin Owen was in 3rd place with Benno Marstaller from the local Restronguet SC in first place and the only Australian in the fleet lying in 2nd place. Iago Davies had a baptism of fire in his first major competition in the Radial . Iago was rolled over by a female competitor on the first line and was obviously a bit miffed to stay the least until he found he was outsailed by Hannah Snellgrove the Olympic 2012 Radial sailor.
During the week Gethin Owen unusually was called Mr Consistent by the local press officer by scoring 4 straight 2nd places to different sailors getting the 1sts.
By the end of the week Benno Marstaller secured the British Laser 4.7 championships with Gethin Owen in 2nd place and top Welsh sailor in the 4.7s. Iago Davies was a credible 8th in the Silver fleet , hopefully he will have over indulged in the local Cornish Pasties as more bulk is needed to cope with the powerful Radial Rig.
Christopher Jones another Laser CHIPAC sailor chose not to the nationals but concentrated on the Laser Europeans in Gdynia Poland and the Laser Worlds in Medinblik , Netherlands. Even though Gethin had qualified for the GBR Worlds squad , his father had inadvertently booked a family holiday and he was unable to compete.
All 3 local sailors will now take part in a week of intensive Radial training organised by WYA. The main focus for the 3 will now be to qualify for the 2015/16 GBR Laser squads and to qualify for the Laser Worlds next summer.
We wish the best of luck to all 3 of them.
