July 18th saw the welcome return after being absent from the 2020 calendar of the Ladies Trophy at Cookham Reach Sailing Club, an event enjoyed by many club members as the exciting sailing is followed by the chance to socialise at the Ladies Tea with plenty of tea and cake.
This year’s event was sailed by four lady sailors, all in Lightning 368 dinghies. Mary Webb (LN 178) took the lead at the start and led to the first buoy with Maddie Harris (LN 279), Tricia Evison (LN 412) and Christine Roy (LN 403) following. Rounding the buoy Mary had opened up a sizeable gap which she extended to over three minutes by the end of the lap. Maddie held second place with Tricia third and Christine fourth.
During the second lap, the race closed up with Maddie closing the gap to Mary and Tricia gaining time on Maddie. We lost one of the sailors from the race when Christine retired after falling in (I’m sure everyone wished they could fall in considering the heat). At the end of the lap, Mary held a lead of just over a minute ahead of Maddie with Tricia just behind. The gaps stayed fairly static during the third lap.
In the last lap and Maddie closed up the gap and took the lead when Mary took a penalty. The penalty gave Maddie a good lap over the remainder of the lap and the remainder of the race saw Tricia battling Mary for the runners-up spot. Maddie took the race win with Mary managing to hold off Tricia for second.