Paul Oakey wins RS400 Open Meeting Warsash 2016

by UK RS400 Class Association on 20 Jul 2016 A light and sunny weekend was what the RS400 fleet driving down to Warsash was expecting for the next part of the Rooster Saiing secondhanddinghies.com RS400 Southern our (Saturday only), and the open on Sunday. However as we all began to overheat in the boat park, we all knew it was a matter of time before the sea breeze kicked in. After a slow sail out to the race area, the breeze built up to a very nice force 3-4 and built further from there.

Day one turned into a two horse race at the front with the Oakey’s and Jon/Nikki fighting it out for first place. They were closely followed by Steve/Chris and Sean/Annalise who were battling it out for third place. That being said, the fleet were very close throughout the weekend with the all boats finishing within 4-5 minutes of each other. As the day progressed, each race turned into a race to the favoured right side of the course (some magic current lee bowing I was told!). The Oakey’s finished the first day with three bullets followed closely by Jon/Nikki.

Day two started off a little more overcast, but the clouds began to burn off and the breeze began to build once more. For the first race many sailors were caught out by a current that made them overshoot the mark. The day saw the team of Neil/Sarah climbing the ranks to finish all three races in the top five and climb to fifth overall! Steve/Chris and Sean/Annalise continued their battle for third with Steve/Chris’s consistency edging them ahead despite Sean/Annalise’s close second in the final race. The final race also saw a new helm take over with Nikki (who looked very excited) taking the reins from Jon (who looked a little scared) and doing an excellent job!

The Oakey’s won the weekend overall counting five wins from six races and discarding a second! The Warsash team both on and off the water ran a really excellent weekend and the fleet looks forward to their next trip back! Next up for the RS400’s is the Eurocup in Travermunde followed the Nationals in August!

Results

1 1441 RS400 Paul Oakey
2 1454 RS400 Jon Heissig
3 1189 RS400 Steve Restall
4 1017 RS400 Sean Cleary/Annalise Nixon
5 1429 RS400 Neil Bevington/Sarah Kuristov
6 1109 RS400 Rob Jones/Liz Jones
7 1181 RS400 Bruce Mills/Andrea Jarman
8 1007 RS400 Nick Daniels/Mark Aitken
9 934 RS400 David Swift/Rob Burgess
10 1437 RS400 Philip Bull/Stuart
11 1220 RS400 John Cooper/Andy Maw
12 1203 RS400 Richard Gnat
13 1435 RS400 Matt Sheahan/Marcus Collings
14 1192 RS400 Jack Munnelly/Liam Vass
15 684 RS400 Matt Fowler
16 527 RS400 Andy Powell/Kieran Holt
17 836 RS400 Adam Humphrey/Jo Humphrey
18 622 RS400 Chris Pallot
19 485 RS400 John Exley/Ingrid Exley