This last weekend, the indicator series for the selection of the four-strong Guernsey team for the 2011 NatWest Island Games went underway. In a north westerly, force 2-3 breeze, eight Lasers - three standards, four radials and one 4.7 -  took to the waters to battle it out in Belle Grave. Under the able race management of Stuart Bloese, two races were completed on relatively short courses.

“We set short courses to make the racing intense and demanding. This time each race comprised three laps on a triangle, sausage, triangle basis and it worked very well.”

In race one, Johanna Asplund and Andy Bridgman in their radials came first off the start line and challenged Dave Aslett in his standard up the first beat. Coming up to the windward mark, Dave rounded first, just ahead of Johanna and Andy and with the rest of the fleet within striking distance.

Down the reaches, Dave and Johanna pulled away slightly whereas Darragh Lee and Matt Stark both made their way back up the fleet in their standards, having been early over the line in the start. Andy stayed second radial closely followed by Sam Van de Velde and Nick Parkes.

Over the rest of the race, Darragh continued his march through the fleet but Dave stayed cool and took line honours, a mere ten seconds ahead of Darragh, then followed by Johanna and Andy, taking 1st and 2nd in the radial fleet, and Matt, Nick, Sam and Poppy Rickards in her 4.7, making a promising debut in the Laser, shortly thereafter.

Race two also saw a number of boats over the line in the start. Sam turned back but Matt and Andy carried on and unfortunately encountered OCS’. Johanna once again took charge in the radial and continued to take a second bullet ahead of Sam and Nick.

Among the standards, the race was extremely tight with the three contenders shifting positions throughout the race. Eventually, Dave managed to pull away slightly to cross the line ahead of Matt and Darragh but only seventeen seconds separated the three. Given Matt’s OCS, Darragh claimed another 2nd behind Dave but, no doubt, all is up for grabs and anything can happen in the rest of the series.

“Yes, the racing was really tight, just as it should be”, says Stuart. “I think we can look forward to some really exciting racing over the rest of the series, and moving forward we will hopefully have even more sailors joining in and challenging for the places on the team.”

The next indicator will take place on Saturday 13 November and the series will then continue with racing every Saturday leading up to Christmas with the last event on 18 December. The timings will be the same each Saturday, a quick 10am briefing followed by launch and the start as soon as possible thereafter. The aim is to complete three races each Saturday.

Next year’s NatWest Island Games will be held in the Isle of Wight from 25 June to 1 July. The sailing events, sailed in Laser standards and radials, will take place in Sandown Bay, a five mile wide, gently shelving sandy bay on the southeast coast and will be hosted by Yaverland Sailing & Boat Club. Tidal streams in the bay are gentle and we can look forward to some great sailing!

For more information on the 2011 NatWest Island Games, see www.natwestislandgames2011.co.uk