Six travellers from three clubs joined the seven home boats at Rudyard Lake Sailing Club for their first ever Albacore Open.  The Albacore fleet has grown rapidly at Rudyard Lake in the last 2 years to the point where they felt confident of holding a competitive open event. 

The first race showcased just how competitive Albacore sailing can be, a half mile first beat in a steady force 3 will normally sort out most fleets but all bar two boats approached the windward mark within a few seconds of each other.  Mark & Catherine Sherwen (RLSC) did themselves no favours when they collided with the mark in the melee and took a penalty knocking them back down the reckoning.  The fleet stretched out a little and then concertinaed back with the front 6 places shuffling on each leg until the finish when 42 seconds separated the first 6 boats. The win was taken by Steve and Andrew Dawson (Winsford Flash) followed by Mike Banner & Kay Woods (Winsford Flash) and David & Rachel Hammond (Ogston).  Steve Thomas & Angela Lilley (RLSC) who had led at one point lost out on the final beat to finish 4^th. 

Race 2 saw a slight shift in wind direction resulting in some very changeable wind patterns that the local boats exploited but it was the Hammonds who won the race, followed by the two RLSC boats helmed by Steve Thomas and Mark Sherwen. 

By the time race 3 started the wind had died to a whisper and became very shifty resulting in rafts of boats around the marks, the Hammonds managed to escape from the rest of the fleet to win the race and the event.  Experience of similar conditions at Winsford led Mike Banner to another second and second overall whilst Howard Blunt from Ogston took the third place in the race but the Dawsons win in the first race secured them third place from Steve Thomas.