RS400 Winters at Leigh and Lowton SC

by Louise Mckeand on 20 Mar 2013

What a great weekend we have all had at the open meetings. Light and testing winds both Saturday and Sunday at Leigh and Lowton. Sixteen RS200’s and fifteen RS400’s competed, from all over the country. Furthest travelled was Russell and June Collister from the Isle of Man and James and Anne Gardner form Hayling Island.

Entries also from Notts County and Scaling Dam. Thanks to everyone for making the effort to come along.

The sailing finished after the first race on Saturday due to the disappearing wind so we opened the bar early and watched the rugby. We had a delicious home cooked meal and pudding made by our renowned cooks Anne and Helen. You will not get better food at any other club in the country. The cakes are to die for. Later, Rob the DJ came along to entertain us playing all our requests so no one had any excuse not to dance. We partied on down to celebrate Paul’s umpteenth birthday.

Anyway, never mind the social what about the sailing results:- Hamish Gledhill and Simon Dowse stormed the first RS400 race in the light and shifty conditions. They were very pleased not to be beaten by any girls! They came second overall. Birthday boy Paul Allen and little bruv Mike then won two races in a shifty light winds on Sunday on for his birthday treat ( we had to let him cos it was his birthday ), and then went on to win the event - happy birthday Paul what a great birthday present – not bad for two outrageous hung-over boys. Wayne and Deb Fletcher missed the first race due to being sickly but they stormed into third place overall on Sunday. Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman, new to the 400 fleet came a very respectable fourth overall.

In the last race they were seen dead last and fought valiantly through the fleet up to fifth. All lady crew Louise Mckeand and Cathy Partington abandoned the rs200 fleet to sail with the big boys in the 400’s. Our claim to fame was getting to the first mark first in the second race. The pressure went straight to legs and turned them to jelly. We were attacked by multiple bogies from port and starboard at the second leeward mark but managed to finish an immensely pleasing fourth in that race ( peaked too early though – all downhill after that ! ). The rs200 fleet had very close and competitive racing. Rob and Becky Partridge won two races and won overall. Mike Saul and Meg Fletcher came a close second winning two races and Tony Taylor and Sarah Tyson won race 4 and came third overall. Martin Smith and Barbara Smith not only came fourth but also won title of ‘dancing queen‘ for the most enthusiastic dancer. Thank you to our superb race team for the slick race turn over.

Thanks again to all the competitors for making the event so much fun.

RS400 Fleet

Sailed: 5, Discards: 1, To count: 4, Entries: 15, Scoring system: Appendix A

Rank	Class	SailNo	Club	HelmName	CrewName	Rating	R1 16Mar	R2 17 March	R3 17 March	R4 17 March	R5 17 March	Total	Nett
1st	RS 400	1395	LLSC	Paul Allen	Mike Allen	939	2.0	1.0	(6.0)	1.0	3.0	13.0	7.0
2nd	RS 400	1014	West Riding	Hamish Gledhill	Simon Dowse	939	1.0	(6.0)	3.0	4.0	2.0	16.0	10.0
3rd	RS 400	1029	Scaling Dam SC	Wayne Fletcher	Deb Fletcher	939	(16.0 DNC)	5.0	5.0	2.0	1.0	29.0	13.0
4th	RS 400	1144	Delph	Chris Pickles	Matt Sharman	939	5.0	2.0	1.0	(6.0)	5.0	19.0	13.0
5th	RS 400	1186	LLSC	Dave Exley	Nigel Hall	939	3.0	(9.0)	2.0	5.0	4.0	23.0	14.0
6th	RS 400	1298	LLSC	Martin Parker	Liam Parker	939	4.0	3.0	4.0	3.0	(6.0)	20.0	14.0
7th	RS 400	1191	LLSC	Louise McKeand	Cathy Partington	939	6.0	4.0	8.0	(9.0)	7.0	34.0	25.0
8th	RS 400	1216	LLSC	Caroline Exley	Mark Atherton	939	7.0	7.0	7.0	8.0	(10.0)	39.0	29.0
9th	RS 400	725	Budworth	Bill Kenyon	Ben Ditchburn	939	(9.0)	8.0	9.0	7.0	9.0	42.0	33.0
10th	RS 400	1091	LLSC	Stuart Belf6ield	Cath Belfield	939	8.0	(12.0)	12.0	11.0	8.0	51.0	39.0
11th	RS 400	1322	Notts County	Ross Ryan	Louise Clayton	939	10.0	10.0	11.0	10.0	(12.0)	53.0	41.0
12th	RS 400	1313	Scaling Dam SC	Peter Snowden	Aaron White	939	11.0	11.0	(13.0)	12.0	13.0	60.0	47.0
13th	RS 400	1155	Blackpool & Fleetwod YC	Nick Holt	Derek Hill	939	(16.0 DNC)	15.0 OCS	10.0	13.0	11.0	65.0	49.0
14th	RS 400	1001	Bolton SC	Richard Craig	Zena Martin	939	13.0	13.0	14.0	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	72.0	56.0
15th	RS 400	1392	Hayling Island	James Gardner	Anne Gardner	939	12.0	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	16.0 DNC	16.0 DNC	76.0	60.0