RS200 Winter Championships season start at Northampton SC

by RS Association on 3 Mar 2011 RS200 Winter Championships season kicked off with the first Gul Grand Prix event at Northampton Sailing Club. The small quality fleet assembled on February 26th and 27th featured some highly variable wind. The fleet contained several new faces and a fair few 470 Olympic hopefuls.

Saturday started very wet, muddy and with most of the fleet looking at a calm Pitsford thinking windguru’s forecast of 12 knots gusting 25-30 knots was well wide of the mark. Race one of course saw the first general recall of the season in 10-12 knots but once the race got underway it soon became clear it was not a day to lead downwind as the wind was becoming erratic with very local areas of real extra pressure.

Pete Vincent/Suzie Proctor, James/Will Rusden and Ben Ainsworth/Rach Williamson all had turns in the lead before Richard and Paru Edwards looked like they were going to make a winning return to 200’s. James and Eluned Stewart though found a gust from heaven on the final run to sail round the outside and win from the Edwards and the Rusden’s.

Then the fun really started, whilst the mean wind stayed around 14-16 knots there were real long pulses of proper main flogging wind up the beats and some great downwind action with some very lively leeward marks. Stu Bithell/Kate MacGregor had disappeared into a huge lead in race two but had a very wet leeward mark. Their lead had been so good they righted boat just before James Peters/Alan Roberts passed them only for their main halyard to break on the next beat leaving Peters/Roberts to win from the Rusden’s and Wayne/Debs Fletcher. The wind got even more feisty for race three but the same two boats were 1.2 again this time with Ally Catt/Chris Martin third.

Then it was ashore in time for a hot shower, watch England stuff the French and eat the excellent value meal laid on by Northampton SC – yes it was a good day particularly if you were called James.

Sunday and the weather really was being a little mean as the beautiful early morning lulled many to leave layers ashore. Race four in a much more steady ten knots was led from mark one to the finish by Wayne and Debbie Fletcher from Peters/Roberts and Johnny McGovern/Sarah Williams. Race five in lighter breeze with cold drizzle now setting in was perhaps the closest of the championship with all the leading boats closely packed at the front. The Rusden’s just won from Peters/Roberts and the Stewarts.

This left things very finely balanced going into the final race but the black flag removed Peters and the Stewarts at the first mark. Nick Charles/Roz Allen and David Giles/Fiona Clark had a close tussle before they finished in that order but overall victory hinged on where the Rusden’s were going to finish and their fifth place gave them overall victory by a point.

Juliet Charles and Alice Kingsnorth won the silver division with an excellent fifteenth overall with Sarah Tuppen and James Williams of Royal Harwich won the bronze division.

The next Gul Grand Prix event is at Bristol CYC on April 9th and 10th.

RS 200 Winters - Saturday Feburary 26th and Sunday February 27th 2011

Northampton Sailing Club

Results as of 9:41 on February 28, 2011

Overall

Rank	Tally	SailNo	HelmName	CrewName	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett	Notes
1st	17	1393	James Rusden	Will Rusden	Highcliffe	3.0	2.0	2.0	(11.0)	1.0	5.0	24.0	13.0
2nd	31	1424	James Peters	Alan Peters	Hayling Island SC	8.0	1.0	1.0	2.0	2.0	(41.0 OCS)	55.0	14.0
3rd	35	1411	Luke Patience	Christian Birell	Hollingworth Lake SC	6.0	4.0	(20.0)	4.0	3.0	3.0	40.0	20.0
4th	2	1203	James Stewart	Eluned Stewart	Weston	1.0	6.0	6.0	6.0	4.0	(41.0 OCS)	64.0	23.0
5th	1	1231	David Giles	Fiona Clark	Weir Wood SC	5.0	16.0	5.0	5.0	(24.0)	2.0	57.0	33.0
6th	34	658	Jonny McGovern	Sarah Williams	Port Dinorwic	(41.0 DNF)	8.0	14.0	3.0	6.0	4.0	76.0	35.0
7th	23	1015	Wayne Fletcher	Deb Fletcher	Scaling Dam	12.0	3.0	15.0	1.0	(19.0)	6.0	56.0	37.0
8th	27	584	Nick Charles	Roz Allen	Netley SC	11.0	(15.0)	7.0	13.0	5.0	1.0	52.0	37.0
9th	18	1031	Chris Catt	Ally Martin	Burghfield	14.0	7.0	3.0	9.0	10.0	(16.0)	59.0	43.0
10th	13	617	Ian Sharps	Ellie Martin	Burghfield	10.0	14.0	4.0	8.0	(17.0)	10.0	63.0	46.0
11th	10	640	Dave Steed	Katharine Lovering	Burghfield SC	4.0	(20.0)	10.0	16.0	11.0	13.0	74.0	54.0
12th	15	1421	Frances Peters	Tom Partington	Hayling Island SC	15.0	9.0	(16.0)	12.0	7.0	12.0	71.0	55.0
13th	4	1258	Stu Bithell	Kate MacGregor	Poole YC	17.0	5.0	(41.0 DNF)	19.0	12.0	7.0	101.0	60.0
14th	19	1301	Pete Vincent	Suzie Procter	BCYC	9.0	21.0	8.0	21.0	9.0	(22.0)	90.0	68.0
15th	33	953	Juliet Charles	Alice Kingsnorth	RYA	23.0	13.0	12.0	14.0	(29.0)	8.0	99.0	70.0
16th	38	1452	Arthur Henderson	Rob Henderson	Salcombe YC	(25.0)	12.0	11.0	15.0	15.0	17.0	95.0	70.0
17th	12	1029	Christian Humphrey	Sam Childs	Datchet	(30.0)	11.0	9.0	24.0	20.0	19.0	113.0	83.0
18th	14	1164	Emma Johnson	Justin Deal	Burghfield	13.0	18.0	13.0	17.0	(28.0)	28.0	117.0	89.0
19th	21	831	Thomas Wright	Caroline Sutton-Reid	Hollingworth Lake SC	16.0	19.0	18.0	(26.0)	22.0	15.0	116.0	90.0
20th	3	1230	Richard Edwards	Paul Edwards	Parkstone YC	2.0	10.0	(41.0 DNF)	25.0	16.0	41.0 DNC	135.0	94.0
21st	39	1170	Ben Ainsworth	Rach Williamson	Parkway Pirates	7.0	(41.0 DNF)	41.0 DNF	27.0	8.0	11.0	135.0	94.0
22nd	24	1161	Jane Olive	Darren McNamara	BCYC	22.0	(28.0)	22.0	7.0	26.0	18.0	123.0	95.0
23rd	5	792	Maia Walsh	Peter Bentley	Cardiff YC	24.0	(27.0)	27.0	18.0	14.0	14.0	124.0	97.0
24th	11	760	Neil Barrett	Sophie Jones	Yorkshire Dales SC	19.0	17.0	19.0	(23.0)	21.0	21.0	120.0	97.0
25th	20	1256	Louise McKeand	Cathy Partington	Leigh & Lowton	18.0	(33.0)	26.0	10.0	25.0	20.0	132.0	99.0
26th	7	1010	Steve Restall	Judy Restall	Downs SC	20.0	25.0	(41.0 DNF)	20.0	13.0	23.0	142.0	101.0
27th	40	1146	Matt Greenfield	David Rolfe	Littleton SC	21.0	22.0	(41.0 DNF)	22.0	31.0	9.0	146.0	105.0
28th	16	770	Luke Pepper	Katie Goodchild	Hykeham SC	28.0	24.0	17.0	(33.0)	30.0	24.0	156.0	123.0
29th	6	1154	Sarah Tuppen	James Williams	Royal Harwich YC	26.0	31.0	31.0	(41.0 DNS)	18.0	29.0	176.0	135.0
30th	37	964	Anthony York	Glenn Rogers	Northampton SC	(34.0)	26.0	21.0	31.0	32.0	30.0	174.0	140.0
31st	32	975	Harry Turner	Pete Nelson	Northampton SC	(35.0)	29.0	25.0	28.0	33.0	26.0	176.0	141.0
32nd	22	1263	Julian Bradley	Renata Sapazinskaite	Wembley SC	29.0	23.0	28.0	(41.0 DNS)	34.0	31.0	186.0	145.0
33rd	28	1317	Jack Holden	Ollie Miller	Arun YC	27.0	(41.0 DNF)	23.0	32.0	23.0	41.0 DNC	187.0	146.0
34th	25	794	Nicholas Smith	Brian Smith	Bowmoor SC	31.0	32.0	29.0	29.0	(35.0)	25.0	181.0	146.0
35th	29	786	Joe Hunt	Steve Clayton	RUYC	32.0	30.0	24.0	(41.0 DNS)	27.0	41.0 DNC	195.0	154.0
36th	9	685	Gary Livingstone	Hannah Livingstone	Northampton SC	33.0	34.0	30.0	30.0	(36.0)	27.0	190.0	154.0
37th	26	829	Adam Chubbock	Henry Durman	Arun YC	38.0	35.0	(41.0 DNF)	35.0	38.0	33.0	220.0	179.0
38th	36	252	Nicola Holden	Emma York	Northampton SC	36.0	(41.0 DNF)	41.0 DNC	34.0	37.0	32.0	221.0	180.0
39th	30	682	Josh Bennett	Joel Wakefield	Rotherham SC	37.0	(41.0 DNF)	41.0 DNC	37.0	39.0	41.0 DNC	236.0	195.0
40th	8	1079	James Russell	Lauren Russell	Alton Water	(41.0 DNF)	41.0 DNC	41.0 DNC	36.0	41.0 DNC	41.0 DNC	241.0	200.0