Volvo Noble Marine RS700 UK Nationals at Eastbourne Sovereign

by Hamish Griffiths on 22 Aug 2013 Volvo Noble Marine RS700 UK Nationals - 'A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread, the night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head'

What a regatta! Everybody in the seven and 800 fleets agreed that this was one of the best Nationals ever. We were blessed with perfect weather, had a great turnout of 30 700s including some new faces and, most particularly, were treated 'Royally' by Eastbourne Sovereign (as usual, it must be said). 80 boats were managed fantastically well. It is a huge tribute to the Club that such a number of sailing members turned out over the course of the event to help out.

The first two days have already been commented on in the daily write-ups and had Jerry Wales, previous multiple champion, in a solid lead with Robbie Bell ( who hasn’t previously troubled the top of the table) second. I think Robbie was the most surprised to find himself up there although those of us who have sailed with him before knew that he has impressive technique and speed; he had previously earned his 'Captain Splash' reputation though!

The last two days saw six races, one having been missed on Saturday when the RO (rightly) deemed the wind a bit too frisky and we had brisk, challenging winds for each of them.

All were close-run things and in the first of the day we lost Jerry Wales to yet more equipment failure. We wish him more luck with his new boat(s)! Colin Dacey was first to the WM and fought hard in the leading pack, never more than metres apart all the way round, for sixth. Last year’s champion Steve Powell had his only first; pretty good since he can hardly have been in the boat since last year and Dave Smithwhite, who was to have a solid day, second and clubmate Andy Brown third.

Take a look at replays of the GPS tracks at www.hamishgriffiths.com to see how close that leading group were; there really was nothing in it.

Robbie Bell led from start to finish in the next; the last run had Bell, Dacey and Nolan, the Snettisham boys, 1,2,3 line astern at over 13kt in the chop with Steve Powell snapping at their heels and pulling through for second. Ian Nolan had the most fantastic start in the last of the day, a real port flyer crossing the line at nearly 8kt and led to the WM only to capsize on his first gybe joined by Andy Brown and Neil Ashby. The conditions were getting much trickier and most boats went over at one time or another. Cautious sailors one-sailed reached down the course and this seemed to pay off for a few. Simon Letten was sailing consistently well (with both sails!) and was only pipped by HISC club mate Ian Swann (sadly not carrying a GPS) for first.

It was all for leader Robbie Bell to lose on the last day but he showed himself a true champion with three firsts. You can’t say better than that. The RO was able to keep the course as first set w/l being exactly southwest/northeast and 1.1km long; it seemed further to weary contestants in the still challenging, but steady, breeze. Pete Purkiss who showed that the 'mature' strain of the fleet can keep their end up, so to speak, pressed the leader to the end but by now Robbie could see the finishing line and nothing was going to stop him. A lovely Snettisham 1,2,3 finish in the last but one was followed by what seemed a lap of honour by Robbie who developed a huge early lead. He was nearly hunted down by Neil Ashby, who had a super regatta in his first 700 season, but he wasn’t to be denied.

Robbie Bell; a very well deserved, popular and plainly astonished 2013 RS700 National Champion!

Huge thanks are due to Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club for generously hosting the seven and 800 Championships. There were too many people involved to properly acknowledge each one but, obviously, grateful thanks to the Commodore, Graham Tomlin (my take away image is of him emptying the rubbish bins on Saturday night), Vice-Commodore Mick Whitmore for all the organisation and encouragement and, obviously, PRO Gary Smith for slick race management each day.

We’ll certainly be back if you’ll have us!

Rank Sail No Helm Club Master R1 R2 R3 R4 R5 R6 R7 R8 R9 R10 Total Nett 1st 875 Robbie Bell Snettisham Beach SC   3.0 1.0 4.0 4.0 (5.0) 1.0 (21.0) 1.0 1.0 1.0 42.0 16.0 2nd 1022 Simon Letten HISC   2.0 (31.0 DNF) 5.0 2.0 (7.0) 5.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 5.0 69.0 31.0 3rd 839 Neil Ashby Shoreham sailing club   (12.0) 2.0 2.0 7.0 4.0 (31.0 DNC) 10.0 3.0 7.0 2.0 80.0 37.0 4th 1023 Ian Nolan Snettisham Beach Sailing Club M 5.0 8.0 6.0 (9.0) (11.0) 3.0 5.0 9.0 2.0 4.0 62.0 42.0 5th 780 Stephen Powell .   9.0 (19.0) 3.0 (24.0) 1.0 2.0 11.0 8.0 9.0 3.0 89.0 46.0 6th 1019 Dave Smithwhite HISC M 10.0 (11.0) (31.0 DNS) 6.0 2.0 7.0 1.0 7.0 6.0 8.0 89.0 47.0 7th 761 Peter Purkiss Brightlingsea M 4.0 4.0 (15.0) 10.0 10.0 4.0 (19.0) 5.0 8.0 6.0 85.0 51.0 8th 1027 Colin Dacey Snettisham Beach S.C. M 11.0 15.0 9.0 3.0 6.0 (31.0 OCS) (31.0 OCS) 2.0 3.0 7.0 118.0 56.0 9th 958 Andy Brown HISC M 6.0 13.0 7.0 (31.0 DNF) 3.0 8.0 (31.0 DNC) 10.0 4.0 10.0 123.0 61.0 10th 962 Steve Marshall Sully Sailing Club M 14.0 (18.0) 14.0 1.0 8.0 (16.0) 4.0 13.0 10.0 9.0 107.0 73.0 11th 1001 Eddie Gatehouse HISC   8.0 6.0 13.0 (14.0) 12.0 9.0 6.0 (16.0) 11.0 12.0 107.0 77.0 12th 984 Adam Golding HISC M 13.0 5.0 (18.0) 5.0 9.0 6.0 8.0 (18.0) 14.0 18.0 114.0 78.0 13th 826 Mark Nicholson Hayling Island M 7.0 7.0 8.0 22.0 (23.0) (31.0 DNC) 9.0 11.0 16.0 11.0 145.0 91.0 14th 979 Ian Swann HISC M 18.0 10.0 16.0 8.0 16.0 12.0 2.0 (21.0) (20.0) 14.0 137.0 96.0 15th 905 Alan (Spod) Olive Netley SC   16.0 14.0 10.0 11.0 (17.0) 10.0 (20.0) 12.0 13.0 16.0 139.0 102.0 16th 949 Matt Connor QMSC   19.0 12.0 (22.0) 13.0 18.0 13.0 7.0 (19.5) 19.0 15.0 157.5 116.0 17th 1011 Jon Bennett Hayling Island SC   15.0 (25.0) 11.0 12.0 19.0 18.0 15.0 15.0 12.0 (22.0) 164.0 117.0 18th 910 Alex Reid Grafham Water Sailing Club   (25.0) 17.0 17.0 19.0 20.0 14.0 13.0 (22.0) 18.0 13.0 178.0 131.0 19th 944 James Bayliss QMSC   (31.0 DNF) 9.0 20.0 18.0 15.0 15.0 (31.0 DNC) 17.0 22.0 17.0 195.0 133.0 20th 1014 Alastar Nichol LDC   (31.0 DNF) (31.0 DNF) 12.0 15.0 24.0 11.0 31.0 DSQ 6.0 15.0 20.0 196.0 134.0 21st 1000 Jerry Wales Windsport M 1.0 3.0 1.0 (31.0 DNF) 13.0 (31.0 DNC) 31.0 DNC 31.0 DNC 31.0 DNC 31.0 DNC 204.0 142.0 22nd 859 Peter O'nions QMSC M 21.0 (31.0 DNF) 19.0 21.0 14.0 (31.0 DNC) 18.0 19.5 17.0 19.0 210.5 148.5 23rd 788 Laurent Declercq RBSC Royal Belgian Sailing Club   22.0 16.0 (31.0 DNS) 23.0 21.0 17.0 16.0 14.0 25.0 (31.0 DNC) 216.0 154.0 24th 914 Graham Blake QMSC M 17.0 21.0 23.0 (31.0 DNS) 22.0 22.0 22.0 (31.0 DNC) 23.0 21.0 233.0 171.0 25th 1013 Hamish Griffiths QMSC M 20.0 20.0 21.0 17.0 29.0 23.0 12.0 (31.0 DNC) (31.0 DNC) 31.0 DNC 235.0 173.0 26th 820 James Fuller Lyme Regis   23.0 22.0 26.0 16.0 28.0 20.0 17.0 (31.0 DNC) (31.0 DNC) 31.0 DNC 245.0 183.0 27th 959 Jakub Kosvica LS Brno   24.0 24.0 24.0 (31.0 DNF) 27.0 21.0 (31.0 DNC) 24.0 21.0 24.0 251.0 189.0 28th 733 Andre Friederich Yachting Club du Luxembourg M 26.0 23.0 28.0 (31.0 DNF) 25.0 19.0 14.0 (31.0 DNC) 24.0 31.0 DNC 252.0 190.0 29th 756 Alistair Paul Grafham   27.0 27.0 27.0 25.0 26.0 (31.0 DNC) (31.0 DNC) 23.0 26.0 23.0 266.0 204.0 30th 762 Adrian Howe Great Moor SC   (31.0 DNF) 26.0 25.0 20.0 30.0 24.0 (31.0 DNC) 31.0 DNC 31.0 DNC 31.0 DNC 280.0 218

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