Healthy attendance at RS400 Inland Championships at Grafham Water SC

by Dave Exley on 11 Oct 2017 On Sat October 7th 37 RS400s arrived for their annual pilgrimage to Grafham Water Sailing Club for the 2017 Inland Championships which was the penultimate event of the RS400 Magic Marine Championship Tour.

The fleet launched into a gusty NW F4 at the North Western end of the lake providing some sizable, thought-provoking shifts for the fleet to get their teeth into.

After a general recall, race one got immediately underway under a black flag, with previous National Champ Mike Simms and newly drafted in crew Jack Holden from Carsington SC digging hard into the left hand side of the course upwind and then carefully picking their way through the gusts downwind to take the win. Only after the race did Jack admit to their nearly missing the start, only realizing that it was a 3,2,1 start sequence, and not 5,4,1! Chris Pickles (last year’s Inland Champ), with Laser star crew Jack Hopkins from Delph SC followed closely in second , with Sam and Dad, John Knight, in third.

Race two saw the wind clocking slightly right and this made for some significant gains by those that dared to find the best of the right hand side. By the end of the race three completely different boats filled the top three spots. Richard Gray and Jon Dyas from Queen Mary SC were flying in the conditions and took the win from Ben Williamson and Charlie Ticehurst from Welton SC and then Paul and Mark Oakey from Porchester SC (2016 National Champions) in third.

In race three the PRO Peter Saxton re-aligned the course to take account of the shifting breeze which was still holding in strength. Big gains were now being had downwind with strong gusts down either side of the run, with many complaining about missing out in the middle of the course. Mike and Jack lead was never really challenged and won the race convincingly from Sam and John Knight, with Dave Exley and Mark Lunn from Leigh and Lowton (recently crowned Northern Tour Champs) nipping into third.

Tired bodies made their way back to the shore with many tails of score board snakes and ladders. Indeed, I could not find anyone who thought they had not already sailed their discard due to mixed fortunes and the very high quality of the fleet.

As usual, the quality of sailing was matched by some legendary socialising, both at the club and the local Wheatsheaf Pub where some of the Northern contingent were once again rumoured to be lining up shots inevitably followed by a bout of table walking!

Lighter winds greeted the competitors on Sunday morning as they tucked into a hearty Grafham full brekkie. Would the lighter winds bring a different group of sailors to the front?

Race four kicked off in a F2, once again peppered with holes and shifts to frighten even the smallest pond sailors (that’s size of pond, not sailor!). Howard Farbrother and Louise Hosken from Queen Mary SC (also previous winners of this event) had clearly got out of bed on the right side and were loving the conditions (“It felt just as holey as a piece of Swiss Cheese at Queen Mary SC – home from home” they were heard to say!).

However, as Howard and Louise led at the end of the second lap, they didn’t notice the shortened course flag and merrily led the entire fleet on a wild goose chase of an unnecessary third lap. All that is, except eagle eyed Kayleigh Roberts who dared her helm Jacob Ainsworth (South Sheilds SC) to cross the line on their own to take the bullet, closely followed by equally aware duo of Christopher Stanton and Jules Thorne from Queen Mary who took second place. By the time the rest of the fleet had done their extra lap, Howard and Louise had managed to hold everyone else off to take third.

By now we had had no fewer than 10 different boats finishing in the top three, after just four races. Phew!
In race five, Dave Exley and Mark Lunn quickly established a lead on the first beat by staying in the pressure on the left and managed to hold onto the same side of the course downwind hotly pursued by Stuart Halman and Anna “Jager Bomb” Walsh from Leigh and Lowton SC. These two boats held onto their positions until the finish with Sam and John Knight pulling though the pack to slip into third.

In a dying breeze and after a small postponement to move the windward mark right the PRO once again magiced up a square windward leeward course to finish off before the breeze fizzled out. Once again, it was light wind gurus Howard and Louise who nailed it to take the race from Richard Catchpole and Gary Coop from Leigh and Lowton SC, with Mike Simms and Jack Holden in third. By finishing the last race in better than seventh Mike and Jack were crowned 2018 Inland Champions.

At the prize giving Mike thanked Peter Saxton and his team for the well run event and Peter presented a special prize to Jacob and Kayleigh for cleverly spotting his flag signals.

The next event is the End of Season Championships at Queen Mary on the 11th and 12th of November with the not-to-be-missed bash on the Sat night.

Rank	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	1432	Mike Sims	Jack Holden	Carsington SC	1	-8	1	5	8	3	26	18
2nd	1418	Howard Farbrother	Louise Hosken	QMSC	9	4	-20	3	4	1	41	21
3rd	1396	Richard Catchpole	Gary Coop	Leigh & Lowton SC	6	-11	5	4	5	2	33	22
4th	1460	Dave Exley	Mark Lunn	Leigh & Lowton SC	(38.0 DSQ)	6	3	9	1	4	61	23
5th	1441	Paul Oakey	Mark Oakey	Portchester SC	7	3	4	6	-14	5	39	25
6th	1202	Sam Knight	John Knight	Bartley SC	3	12	2	-14	3	6	40	26
7th	1283	Chris Pickles	Jack Hopkins	Delph SC	2	5	10	-17	6	7	47	30
8th	963	Adam Whitehouse	Chris Bownes	Wilsonian SC	4	7	11	-13	12	8	55	42
9th	1189	Steve Restall	Chris Stubbs	Downs Sailing Club	8	13	6	-15	13	9	64	49
10th	669	Jacob Ainsworth	Kayleigh Roberts	South Sheilds SC	14	15	-19	1	7	13	69	50
11th	1203	Richard Gray	Jon Dyas	QMSC	-17	1	14	11	15	10	68	51
12th	1414	Caroline Whitehouse	Richard Ashwell	Bartley SC	5	-23	23	7	11	11	80	57
13th	1465	Ben Williamson	Charlie Ticehurst	Welton SC	18	2	12	16	(38.0 BFD)	12	98	60
14th	1017	Sean Cleary	Annalise Nixon	Oxford SC	15	9	8	12	-20	16	80	60
15th	1453	Stuart Halman	Anna Walsh	Leigh & Lowton SC	12	-22	17	19	2	15	87	65
16th	684	Jonathan White	Rob Woodward	Pevensay Bay/Shoreham SC	25	(38.0 DNS)	9	10	17	14	113	75
17th	1450	Nick Eaves	Wayne	Bartley SC	13	14	7	(38.0 BFD)	25	17	114	76
18th	1452	Howard Eeles	Chris Hawley	Bartley SC	11	10	16	21	18	(38.0 DNC)	114	76
19th	1262	Jon Willars	Richard Brameld	Welton SC	10	20	13	18	-24	18	103	79
20th	1392	Christopher Stanton	Jules Thorne	QMSC	23	24	21	2	(38.0 DNF)	23	131	93
21st	1257	Mark Dingsdale	Vanessa Evans	Leigh & Lowton SC	19	-25	24	20	16	20	124	99
22nd	1301	Mike Whitmore	Sarah Whitmore	Eastbourne Sovereign SC	27	(38.0 DSQ)	38.0 DNC	8	9	19	139	101
23rd	828	Chris Williams	Martin Spencer	Leigh & Lowton SC	21	17	15	-28	23	26	130	102
24th	1175	Sam Leiper	Elliot Fisher	Carsington SC	16	18	-30	23	19	27	133	103
25th	763	Liam Alcock	Eve Wyatt	South Sheilds SC	-30	29	26	24	10	21	140	110
26th	1210	Mike Partridge	Claire Davis	HISC	24	19	-25	22	22	24	136	111
27th	1435	Matt Sheahan	Ellie Sheahan	QMSC	20	28	18	26	-29	25	146	117
28th	1228	Andrew Johnson	Sarah Humphrey	Grafham Water Sailing Club	26	16	-31	27	30	29	159	128
29th	1029	John Cunningham	Nicola Cokayne	Carsington SC	29	30	29	-32	21	22	163	131
30th	1184	Stuart Williams	Joshua Crisp	Army Sailing Association	(38.0 DNF)	26	27	25	26	30	172	134
31st	1272	Andy Wilcox	Hannah Wilcox	Grafham Water Sailing Club	22	27	28	-31	27	31	166	135
32nd	1340	Sam Neal	Alayne Seymour	Grafham Water Sailing Club	28	21	22	(38.0 DNC)	38.0 DNC	38.0 DNC	185	147
33rd	872	James Cokayne	Emily Cokayne	Carsington SC	31	-33	33	30	31	28	186	153
34th	527	Andy Powell	Ian Verso	Warsash SC	33	-34	32	33	28	32	192	158
35th	676	Michael Marriott	Maurice Barnes	Thorpe Bay Yacht Club	(38.0 DNC)	32	34	29	32	34	199	161
36th	1092	Marc Walford	Alan Cooke	Grafham Water Sailing Club	32	31	-35	35	33	33	199	164
37th	1382	Andrew Hunt	Matthew Hunt	Eastbourne Sovereign SC	(38.0 DNC)	38.0 DNF	36	34	38.0 DNF	38.0 DNC	222	184