01/10/2016
Stewartby Open and Streaker Southern Area Championship Stewartby Water Sports Club

After the first attempt at holding the Streaker Southern Area Championships was foiled by a forecast of very light winds at Weir Wood in July, the re-scheduled championship at Stewartby Water on October 1st looked like it would fare no better as the competitors arrived to find a glassy lake. To make matters worse, the forecast this time was for heavy rain as well. However, 10 Streakers turned up and fortunately, after a half hour postponement, the breeze had filled in enough for racing to commence.

In the first race Ian Priest was soon in front with Veronica Falat not far behind and these two pulled clear of the rest and were never caught, while the rest of the fleet battled for third. At the finish Priest and Falat were 1st and 2nd and the 3rd place went to Andrew Davies, just ahead of Mark Langston and Chris Abela. Ian Bradley had had a poor start in that race but in the next was back on form and fighting for the lead with Falat. Bill Strange was also doing well and managed to get ahead of Bradley downwind only to suffer the indignity of a capsize at a gybe mark. By this time Falat had established a good lead and Bradley was now clear in 2nd while Priest came in 3rd ahead of Langston.

These morning races were quite short but after lunch, with the race programme back on track, the Race Officer let the two afternoon races last a bit longer. There had been some light rain but, although big black clouds were overhead, the afternoon weather was really quite bright. The main problem for the Race Officer was that the breeze was progressively swinging right and he had to set different courses to suit. Race 3 saw Falat get clear ahead again, this time with Priest beating Bradley for 2nd place and so, with one more race to go, the championship was now between Falat with 2 wins and a 2nd and Priest with 1 win, a 2nd and a 3rd. If Priest won the last race he would take the trophy  - and so it proved! On the first beat the breeze was very shifty and it looked for a while as if any one of 4 or 5 boats would round the mark first but when it counted Priest was there. He then pulled away while Falat, Bradley and Strange had a very close race. At the finish Priest was over a minute ahead, with Falat 2nd and Bradley 3rd, and this was also the final finishing order for the event, with Priest and Falat tying on points but Priest winning the Southern Area Championship trophy with that 4th race victory.