RS400 Gul Grand Prix at Draycote Water SC

by Howard Farbrother on 7 Apr 2012 RS400 Gul Grand Prix was held at Draycote Water Sailing Club. Despite nationwide predictions of death-by-tanker-strike strangely normal conditions greeted the brave competitors.

An extensive briefing outside the nice warm clubhouse gave the competitors the chance to realise it wasn’t quite summer yet, and make suitable choices for sailing clothing. Eight boats lined up on a start-line that was crying out for a port end flyer, sadly no-one obliged, and race one got away smoothly, with Nick Craig and endeavour tyro Alan Roberts leading in 1383, and assorted scuffling for other places. The short course was compensated for by a healthy number of laps ensuring cumulative confusion set in by the end of lap five, and big gaps allowing everyone to sail in clean wind. Rumour has it that the Craig machine took first, Jasper Barnham and Graham Saxton (1275) second, and Caroline Whitehouse with Guy Mason (1379) a solid third.

The second race ensued promptly, with the same order establishing itself almost as quickly. In the third race somehow Messrs Farbrother and Martin (1251) bucked the trend and appeared at the windward mark a good 30m ahead of La Craig, but luckily normal service resumed and a 200m lead had been re-established by the bottom of the same run. The suspiciously smooth sailing duo of Barnham and Saxton gracefully extracted second place from Farbrother/Martin by lap three, and the fleet waited for a mystic sign that the finish line was a legitimate place to go. Strangely, Mr Craig got the nod first.

By the fourth and last race the wind had mysteriously swung to make the fixed start line appear a thing of unbiased beauty. This confused Mr Craig, who decided that wallowing on the start line for 30 seconds after the start was the way to go. This unexpected event led to some unseemly scuffling in the rest of the fleet, as the race was clearly wide open. This delirious state of affairs lasted almost two laps. Final order Craig/Roberts, Barnham/Sexton, Whitehouse/Mason.

The fleet retired to the shore and the warm welcome of the legion of midges who had misread the time of year. Luckily patented midge-repellent was available in the form of alcoholic beverages, served by the smiling Draycote shore crew and all was well. Day two was unfortunately canned due to lack of wind, leaving overall results as per last race. On to Bartley!

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	Pts
1st	1383	Nick Craig	Alan Roberts	Frensham Pond SC	-1	1	1	1	3
2nd	1275	Jasper Barnham	Graham Sexton	Snettisham Beach SC	-2	2	2	2	6
3rd	1379	Caroline Whitehouse	Guy Mason	Bartley SC	3	3	-4	3	9
4th	1251	Howard Fairbrother	Dan Martin	Queen Mary SC	-4	4	3	4	11
5th	1390	Andy Hatch	Dan Hoskins	Queen Mary SC	-5	5	5	5	15
6th	854	David Rickards	Chris Brown	Weston SC	6	(DNC)	6	6	18
7th	1240	Simon Read	Eleanor Read	Lee on Solent SC	7	6	7	(DNC)	20
8th	1051	Matt Sheahan	Caroline Sheahan	?	-9	7	8	7	22
9th	561	Shawn Woodcock	Tony Cliff	Bartley SC	8	8	-9	9 DNF	25

RS Class Association website