Richard Dwight

The two-day annual sailing regatta for the 'Lipton Cup', held last Saturday and Sunday at the CMYC Bolgoda - was to an extent marred by inconsistent weather.

Though inclement conditions prevailed on Saturday with hardly any winds and the sun refusing to shine - it did not however dampen the spirits and enthusiasm of the competing sailors be it in the Junior optimist race or the senior fleet race.

Amidst placid waters on the lake, accompanied by intermittent showers, both the juniors as well as the seniors on the '90' minute course exercised patience on a windless morning to tilt the sails at opportune moments to make good of whatever blowing that came, to sail on. Dimitri Gunewardena of Stafford International did well to win the Junior race, whilst the runner-up was Joshua Karpinski.

In the senior race the duel was between the former Asian Bronze Medallist, Lalin Jirasinha, a seasoned campaigner indeed and the equally competent, Jeremy Bolling, a determined hard sailor.

The experienced Lalin as helm and Pramukshi Kariyawasam as crew in their 'Enterprise', in the end had the better of Jeremy, who sailed single handed in a 'GP 14' on day two, Sunday the weather had improved considerably with hardly no rain for the sun to brighten things up with the windstrength being very much higher than the previous day.

In the Junior race per Fredrick Svendsen of the British International school did well to get ahead of Joshua Karprinski of Lyceum Intn'l school.

In the senior fleet race Jeremy Bolling came into his own as helm with Pramukshi Kariyawasam as crew to lead the rest to win easily, coming second was per Svendsen helm and Asanka Gunawardena crew.