RS200 Eastern Travellers Series at Waldringfield Sailing Club

by Sally Campbell on 12 Apr 2016 Seven RS200s raced at the opening meeting of the Eastern Travellers Series sponsored by Fox’s Marine and Country at Waldringfield Sailing Club’s Easter Egg regatta weekend.

Sailing on club courses from this friendly club, which has recently adopted the class and in superb surroundings, the five local boats initially appeared to have home field advantage over the two visitors, having some idea what the tide might do as the channel snaked between banks and saltings submerged by spring tides.

Saturday was breezy, cool and not helped by sharp showers of rain coming up the river from Felixstowe Ferry. Close racing at the front of the fleet left the results wide open at the end of the first day with Rheanna and Holly Pavey (Stour Sailing Club) up against local boats sailed by Robin Parsons and Liz Snelling and Mark Hodge and Becky Hodge, the mix helped by the last race on Saturday where the two visitors were at the front of the race with no idea which buoy was the windward mark, a lesson learned the hard way. For a club that has only recently started sailing 200s the day proved the Waldringfield teams proved they had properly got the measure of the boat.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and with light winds for the first race. Rheanna and Holly won all of the Sunday races while the Waldringfield boats fought out over the overall second place. During the second race and especially the third the wind freshened and down the downwind leg of the final race, the speeding 200s were getting cheers from Cadet teams (and potential 200 sailors) as they blasted past, finally much faster than the remarkably well sailed local Wayfarers which were sharing the same course, with occasional capsizes altering positions amongst the 200s.

All in all a great weekend, with excellent race management, a very friendly club, great catering and with lots of chocolate for prizes the event was a fun and a big success. The class fully intends to return next year. Many thanks to Ian Videlo and his race team and Chris Woodard the club’s 200 class captain for the welcome.

The next event in the series is at Alton Water on the 14th - 15th May shared with Fevas and 400s on windward leeward courses.