Sunday 29 June at the perfect venue of the centre at South West lakes Trust, Stithians  become the venue for the annual Alan Tolson Memorial Race.

A classic sunny breezy afternoon saw over 20 participants take to the water to sail a figure of 8 course for an hour.  Typically the wind  showed us who was boss changing direction twice in the first 10 minutes of the race leaving all with a very broad reach and a bit of upwind sailing making it tricky for everyone.

Some stylish sailing was seen right across the fleet from the moment the start gun went with Paul Baker  taking line honours after one hour with 14 laps. He was closely chased all the way by last years champion Geoff Mead and Gareth Tibbs  (also a previous winner) proved to be up there as well. Ted Moir at 70 years old also took part competitively and we had our best turnout for ladies with 4 competitors joining in.  Jane Watt completed the most laps this time and took home a fantastic prize as well.

We had great support in demo kit & Prizes from Naish Sails UK, Pryde Group UK and Tushingham sails along with prizes from Reef, Da Kine, Alder Wetsuits and Pure Blue Water who  kept all the organisers and competitors hydrated for the whole day. Lusty Glaze Restaurant and Boards magazine also supported us with generous
prize donations.  The day was rounded off with Andrew Penhaligon taking home a Carbon Boom donated by Naish Sails as first prize in the Raffle.

All in all we raised £510 towards the charity of the RNLI and the local RCH Hospital cancer unit.

Many thanks  to all who helped out and we look forward to a bigger and better one next year.

If anyone has any good photos and can e-mail me copies for our records that would be great too.

Cheers

Peter Stephens
Westcountry Watersports
T: (01872) 275342 m: 07977 489 446