NCSC Junior Open The Notts County Junior Open was held on the 21st June.

A calm morning as rigging and briefing took place belied the very breezy, but sunny, conditions that then set in for the racing. A modest number of competitors took to the water for the first race before lunch. All but one - Jack Clay's 4.7 Laser - sailing Toppers.

As the racing was held in conjunction with the 'Junior' Scorpion event and a 405 event the OOD, Ken Twemlow, with his glamorous assistant, Kathryn, had a challenge with course setting. The Junior fleets' course taking in much of the lake and allowing the safety RIBs to enjoy much high speed motoring as they effectively dealt with each unfolding dunking.

The 405's sailing up and down an accompanying windward - leeward course. The positions on the water were soon well established with Jack in his Laser taking a comfortable lead followed by an impressive Peter in his Topper and Lawrence in third closely followed by Chris.

After a well earned lunch the fleets went out for the afternoon's races. The conditions were now seriously challenging for the lighter juniors with the full 5.3 Topper rigs and it was great perseverance, and with credit to the race training development work by Tim Cripps, Alison Goodall and others in recent weeks, that the fleet by and large managed to complete the two, long, afternoon races.

The prize giving was made by the Commodore, Steve, with all the competitors earning a reward for the hard work they had put in, well done all! - Emily, Tamsin, Sean, Chris, Cameron, Peter, Jack and Lawrence. Once the handicapping had been sorted the final results came in: 1st - Peter Anderson, Topper 5.3 2nd - Jack Clay, Laser 4.7 3rd - Lawrence Logan, Topper 5.3 (Plus 1st Under 13 Trophy)

[Photo credits to L Edge and J Logan P6291277, DSCF1764, DSCF1788]

A vicious Westerly wind greeted the 18 competitors for the NCSC Junior Open, being held in conjunction with the Scorpion Junior Open. Race Officer Ken Twemlow set challenging courses for the youngsters throughout the day, several of whom were taking part in their first open meeting. The two day 405 category was dominated by visiting twins Helen and Sarah Burgess from Pennine Sailing Club who came to terms with the blustery conditions.

The runners up spot was in doubt up to the 6th and final race with three Notts County boats eventually having to rely on count back to sort out the positions. In the junior open category, Notts County Junior Development Squad member Peter Anderson showed some blistering upwind pace and proved a worthy winner. Jack Clay in his first year sailing a Laser 4.7 put in an excellent 3 race series to secure the runners up position, whilst lightweight Lawrence Logan showed maturity beyond his years to master the conditions to achieve 3rd place. (Eat a few more pies Lawrence!)

Throughout the fleet there were many personal achievements by all of these youngsters who showed tremendous spirit in the conditions.

RESULTS JUNIOR OPEN 1ST Peter Anderson NCSC Topper 2nd Jack Clay NCSC Laser 4.7 3rd Lawrence Logan NCSC Topper

405 OPEN 1st Helen & Sarah Burgess Pennine Sailing Club 2nd Patrick Ford & Ella Hubbard NCSC 3rd Sally Morris & Anastasia Logan NCSC 4th Lizzie Hubbard & Aimee Coghill NCSC Tim Cripps

Scorpion Junior Report