Gul Grand Prix at Beer Sailing Club

by Debbie Darling on 19 Jun 2012 The RS200 and RS800 Gul Grand Prix was held at Beer Sailing Club over the weekend of 16th and 17th June 2012.

Beer, as always, made us extremely welcome, but unfortunately the 30+ knot forecast for Saturday was pretty accurate. You could see the white horses bucking on Lyme Bay from the hill five miles away. The race officer wisely canned the days racing and scheduled an early start and five races for Sunday. This left us to enjoy a day at the seaside, barbeque, happy hour and even the replica Olympic torch on its journey from Torbay to Weymouth by sea.

Sunday was fabulous. There was sunshine, rolling waves and a breeze building from a solid 12 to frisky 18 knots. Much of the fleet had been put off by the forecast for Saturday, but the few that braved it were treated to five intense and extremely close races.

The racing was so close that there was little between first and last place and any mistake cost dearly. Races were won by Mark Heather and Ed Cowell, Dicken Maclean and Hannah Young, Ben and Roz McGrane, Ian Sharps and Ellie Martin. Mark Heather and Ed Cowell showed the most consistency, never finishing out of the top four. Matt Mee and Emma Norris stormed in first couple of races, whilst John Teague and Darren McNamara showed blistering pace upwind as the breeze got up.

The Beer shore crew were out in force, not only were we helped through the breakers and up the beach, but also treated to a lovely all you can eat high tea.

The next leg of the Gul Grand Prix circuit is at Derwent in two weeks time, combined with the Scottish series and Bolle northern tour.

Results:

Sail No	Fleet	Helm	Crew	Club	Points	Place	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5
1488	Gold	Mark Heather	Edward Cowell	Wilsonian	9	1	1	3	3	4	2
481	Bronze	John Teague	Darren McNamara	Bristol Corinthian YC	15	2	10	8	2	2	3
1311	Gold	Matt Mee	Emma Norris	Red Wharf Bay	16	3	2	2	12	8	4
584	Bronze	Ben McGrane	Roz McGrane	Netley	17	4	5	4	12	1	7
822	Silver	Edd Whitehead	Alice Kingsnorth	Parkstone	18	5	4	6	4	5	5
940	Silver	Dicken Maclean	Hannah Young	Island Barn Reservoir	19	6	6	1	6	6	6
1467	Gold	Ian Sharps	Ellie Martin	Burghfield SC	20	7	9	9	1	9	1
1495	Silver	Tim Ellis	Hucky Horner	Island SC	24	8	3	7	7	7	12
1422	Bronze	Caroline Martin	N Martin	Burghfield SC	27	9	7	5	5	10	12
1029	Bronze	Oliver Vidal	Noelle Vidal	RYA	29	10	8	10	12	3	8
674	New	Tom Whicher	Clare Shinton	Netley	46	11	11	11	12	12	12

RS Class Association website