Magic Marine RS Aero open at Reading SC

by Emily Davis on 18 Apr 2015 The rain ceased as we arrived at Reading Sailing Club and we were greeted by a friendly club member who helped us off with our RS Aero and RS Teras. A beautiful spot with an interesting long thin lake allowing the breeze which was running straight down to maintain its strength.

We enjoyed a leisurely rig up whilst keeping an eye on the building conditions. A cheer was raised as one RS Aero sailor decided to head off early to be rewarded by an instant capsize! Everyone who was able changed down a rig size (or two) to allow for the conditions which we later discovered were running at 27kn, gusting to 36kn!

Once all were on the water the racing began for those who managed to stay upright long enough to start. A cracking reaching course was set and the race gave Matt Thursfield (Chelmarsh) a convincing win in his seven rig from local Steve Sharp (Reading) trying out the RS Aero Five for the first time. Third was Phil Wright (Gurnard), again in a Five rig.

Race two was short and sweet as the wind was raging higher, a one lap race with Matt repeating his victory with a 30 second lead from Phil who pushed his way up to second past Steve.

A great hot lunch in the canteen and we all set out with gusto to battle the wind once more. A reef in for the smaller Tera sailor and a lesson in how hard to crank on the cunningham for Emily (Great Moor) made it possible to stay upright long enough to race!

Race three was led all the way once more by Matt from Vice Commodore and organiser of the event, Paul Robson (Reading) in second, giving Nick Eales (Lymington) the chance to savour being on the podium in third.

Race four followed, with second very quick laps being sailed. Matt once more the clear winner from Phil followed by Nick. The race was notable for being the first Emily managed to complete!

The last race of the day gave Matt his resounding victory; this time all the seven’s were in front of the five’s. The five’s had some very close racing with only 25 seconds between them at the finish and the wind had dropped just enough to enable Emily to complete the course with no capsizes!

All in all a great day at a very welcoming club, next year we shall see some more boats on the water (and hopefully a slightly more favourable wind)! Well done to Matt for winning from Phil and Nick. A big thank you to Paul for organising the event and allowing the RS Teras to join in. Thanks too to Magic Marine for generously supporting the event with gift vouchers for prizes and to RS for the use of a demo boat.

Next on the RS Aero calendar up is the Start of Season Champs at Northampton SC on 25/26th April followed by the Class organised Lift-Off day and Open Meeting at Bewl Valley SC on 2/3rd May.

 Results:

Rank	Class	SailNo	Helm	Club	PY	Race 1	Race 2	Race 3	Race 4	Race 5	Total	Nett
1st	RS AERO 7	1208	Matt Thursfield	Chelmarsh SC	1065	-1	1	1	1	1	5	4
2nd	RS AERO 5	1016	Phil Wright	Gurnard SC	1102	3	2	(9.0 DNS)	2	4	20	11
3rd	RS AERO 5	1302	Nick Eales	Lymington Town SC	1102	4	4	3	3	-6	20	14
4th	RS AERO 7	1079	Paul Robson	Reading SC	1065	-6	5	2	6	2	21	15
5th	RS AERO 7	1002	David Cherrill	Broadwater SC	1065	5	(9.0 DNC)	4	4	3	25	16
6th	RS AERO 5	1205	Steve Sharp	Reading SC	1102	2	3	(9.0 DNC)	9.0 DNC	9.0 DNC	32	23
7th	RS AERO 5	1205	Andrew Wilde	Burghfield SC	1102	(9.0 DNC)	9.0 DNC	5	5	5	33	24
8th	RS AERO 5	1301	Emily Davies	Great Moor SC	1102	(9.0 DNS)	9.0 DNS	9.0 DNF	7	7	41	32