Pursuit Series Race 1 8th May 2022

A glorious Sunday afternoon saw the first in the pursuit series at Dell Quay SC with 8 boats signing on. Pursuit races have the slowest boats starting first, the fastest last, the aim being to get to the front by the end of the 90-minute race duration.

Race officer Stephen Holcroft set a simple upwind/downwind course to take advantage of the nice 6-10knts southerly breeze, going to Kiln, Copperas West and Hook marks.

De la Huntys Laser Radial went away first followed by the three Solos of Hilgers, Nicky Buchanan and Purdy.ÂÂ Hilgers getting off to a fine start and quickly overtaking the Radial. Next off was Francis (Graduate), followed by Dickers (Vareo), Andrew Buchanan (Finn) and last some 27 minutes after the Radial Chrystall and Tomlinson in the RS 800.

Hilgers was chased down by Francis who took the lead, the Graduate racing well in the light winds, Purdy made up ground rapidly and went into second place, the Vareo of Dicker was taking advantage of the long downwind legs and looked to be catching the leaders at one point before the wind died down too much to make his spinnaker effective.

In the final stages Purdy looked like he was going to catch Francis, but time ran out and in the end, Francis took a well deserved win, with Purdy second and Hilgers third.