RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton Sailing Club

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton © David Heaton Photography

A warm welcome at Leigh and Lowton SC was provided to twelve RS400s for the first event of the TridentUK Northern Tour of 2025. Just one race was planned before lunch by the PRO, Mike Baldwin. A SW F2-4 made conditions quite tricky with the wind blowing across the lake. In an attempt to make a longer lap, the PRO set a trapezoid course.

Throughout the starting sequence the wind was shifting frequently, swapping from port bias to starboard bias. Starting plans were made and then binned just as rapidly, keeping the fleet on their toes. At the gun, Oli Groves and Esther Pankhurst (Beaver SC) led from the left of the line - good decision! But by the first windward mark, Dave Exley and Nige Hall emerged from the right hand side to slot in just behind them. Oli and Esther played the shifts well to stay ahead, but Dave and Nige were overhauled by Alistair Coates and Alistair Norris (Leigh & Lowton SC) and then Hamish Gledhill and Ross Southwell (West Riding SC and Leigh & Lowton SC) finishing in that order at the line.

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © David Heaton Photography

After lunch the gusts had increased slightly, but sadly the direction remained the same. PRO Mike Baldwin canvassed opinion on the course layout and the consensus was to go for a windward leeward sprint format, providing shorter but more races - everyone was in agreement. This meant we could now plan for an additional 4 races after lunch instead of the planned two.

The second race once again offered choices to start at both ends, and once again by virtue of a short beat, the majority of the fleet were forced left, which was generally seeming to work. However once again some in the right found the buried treasure. This time Alastair Rimmer and Martin Spencer (Bassenthwaite SC and Leigh & Lowton SC) popped out from the right, comfortably in the lead with Oli and Esther in hot pursuit.

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © David Heaton Photography

Being in a nice new borrowed boat, Alistair and Martin were revelling in their position at the front of the fleet, Alistair in particular was enjoying looking at Oli and Esther over his transom for once, but then got distracted by attempting to open dialogue with the opposition at the leeward mark. "What do we do next?" said Alastair to the newly engaged couple hunting him down, "Tack off" they politely suggested, and you can imagine what happened next. Oli and Esther passed them followed by Richard Catchpole and Ness Evans (Leigh and Lowton SC) who finished in second, Alastair and Martin hung on for a well sailed third.

By now the fleet were realising just how hard it was to come back from a bad start. Short races and a slightly port bias course orientation was making the start line and first tack decisions critical. Surely enough a general recall was the entree for the third race. We got cleanly away on the second attempt, with once again the cream rising to the top when it mattered. Oli and Esther led, with the Alistairs in second and Hamish and Ross in third and this is how it remained at the finish.

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © David Heaton Photography

Testament to the high quality of the fleet, everyone had finished within a minute of the first boat and the PRO rapidly got the fourth race away sharpish. Oli and Esther got tangled up in a start line incident and had to do turns, so it was someone else's turn to lead the fleet. The Alistairs gladly grabbed that opportunity and lead from start to finish closely followed by Dave and Nige and these two boats managed to pull away from the fleet with the help of some kind gusts. Third was Richard and Ness and Oli and Esther did very well to get themselves back to fourth.

The PRO Mike Baldwin, squared up the course a little for the last race of the day, but the importance of the start once again caused a general recall, and this time it was followed by a black flag. The start got away cleanly (although the race office was later quoted as saying "only just"). Oli and Esther led form Alistair & Alistair start to finish in the marginal planning conditions. Richard and Ness had a great last downwind leg to pull back to a third.

The clocks going forward meant an extra early start for everyone and there were a few tales over a quick breakfast about hearing the wind building throughout the night.

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © David Heaton Photography

As we rigged for the first race, the wind felt strong (a decent f5), but there was no doubt that we were all going sailing. The PRO had set the line, mains were hoisted but then as some gusts came through all the boats started to jump about on their trolleys and at that point we all started hesitating. Well nearly all... Chris Massey's Saturday crew Charlotte, had already looked at the forecast had had made way for a stronger v2.0 husband crew, so out they went closely followed by the Alistair and Alistair who "love it when it's like this".

5 mins later after one capsize, and not a kite hoist attempted, both boats returned to shore and the verdict was "not remotely raceable" and "If we'd have put the kite up, the mast would have gone". A 38mph gust was recorded on the committee boat.

After a short postponement and reassessment, and with the forecast not easing until much later in the day, the decision was taken to abandon further racing.

Oli Groves and Esther Parkhurst won overall and Oli thanked the PRO for getting a good number of races in on the Saturday and Leigh and Lowton for a well run, friendly event with a great galley.

At the prize-giving, Trident vouchers were won by Charlotte Graham, Alastair Rimmer and Ross Southwell.

The next event on the Trident RS400 2025 Northern Tour is at Yorkshire Dales SC on 12&13th April - see you there.

RS400 TridentUK Northern Tour at Leigh & Lowton - photo © David Heaton Photography

Overall Results: