RS100 Winter Championship and Bolle Grand Prix at Chew Valley

by Debbie Darling on 19 Mar 2013 The RS100 fleet met at Chew Valley Lake for their first Open Meeting of the year. A select group of thirteen sailors turned up over the cold weekend, including a couple of new faces welcomed to the fleet.

The forecast was for 14 knots gusting to 30 knots. Race 1 started into a shifting breeze that started left but shifted right favouring those that tacked onto port early. The wind also died to almost nothing as the beat progressed, stretching out the fleet. Steven Lee led round the windward mark, and sailed the shifts well to win the race.

Of the local boats, Tim Mitchell and Nick Edmonds were showing good early form. There were lots of place changes downwind, as the wind started to pick up again before the heavens opened. Steve was followed home by Alex Morrison, Clive Eplett and Huw Powell.

In the second race, Huw Powell reached the windward mark first having played the shifts well. Some big gusts came down the track including one measured at 27 knots. This led Huw to drop and tack round, which led to much stick later as those behind, including Alex and Chris Cunningham, nailed the gybe. The single sail reach into the leeward gate proved exciting for Huw as he held on despite a very deep submarine.

The local hotshot, David Smart, had found good speed downwind, but capsized on the drop alongside an already swimming Clive. Al Hall succeeded in puncturing his hull to put paid to his day’s racing, although nobody could fathom how he’d done it. A big battle ensued at the front between Huw and Chris, with Chris showing his customary heavy wind skills, despite having shed a few pounds over the winter. However Clive slipped through to take second place behind Huw with Chris third and Steven fourth.

Again the right hand side paid up the first beat and Greg Booth showed good speed to round the windward mark in the lead. However he went right downwind and sailed into a hole close to Denny Island, where we suspect he was going for Swallows and Amazons fun.

The wind was still string and Huw and Steven led the fleet at the leeward mark, although some thought Steven was about to lose his place as he dropped his kite under the bow but somehow managed to keep the boat upright on the turn through the gate with the kite half up.

Those two led the fleet away while Davis Smart battled his way up the fleet to a comfortable third place until the final downwind where he inexplicably showed great kindness to those behind by going for a swim, leaving Greg, Clive and Alex to pass.

The RO, Pete Rose and his team had showed great skill in not only organising three great races in testing shifty conditions, but also getting everyone off the water in time for the Wales v England game. However the English were less happy at the end of the match. The rugby was followed by pizzas and some late night table tennis.

Unfortunately on Sunday, the wind didn’t show up. And despite a brief foray onto the water the RO sensibly decided to knock it on the head at 13.30 so the travellers could get away early.

Everyone agreed that Chew had been a great location for the first Open of the year and hoped for a return in 2014.

Rank	Fleet	Class	SailNo	Helm Name	CrewName	Club	R1	R2	R3	Total	Nett
1st	10.2	RS100	240	Huw Powell		Red Wharf Bay	4	1	1	6	6
2nd	8.4	RS100	314	Steven Lee		Weston	1	4	2	7	7
3rd	8.4	RS100	233	Clive Eplett		Frensham Pond	3	2	4	9	9
4th	10.2	RS100	131	Alex Morrison		Leigh and Lowton SC	2	5	5	12	12
5th	8.4	RS100	421	Chris Cunningham		Starcross YC	7	3	7	17	17
6th	648.4	RS100	277	David Smart		CVLSC	8	6	6	20	20
7th	8.4	RS100	428	Greg Booth		Portdinorwic SC	5	14.0 DNF	3	22	22
8th	10.2	RS100	143	Tim Mitchel		CVLSC	6	9	8	23	23
9th	8.4	RS100	393	Stephen McDonald		Starcross YC	11	7	10	28	28
10th	8.4	RS100	372	Nick Edmonds		CVLSC	12	8	9	29	29
11th	8.4	RS100	298	Al Hall		RYA ?	9	14.0 DNF	14.0 DNF	37	37
12th	8.4	RS100	159	Mike Adams		Bexhill	10	14.0 DNF	14.0 DNF	38	38
13th	8.4	RS100	197	Tim Hopes		Whitefriars SC	14.0 DNF	14.0 DNS	14.0 DNF	42	42

Website: UK RS100 Class Associataion