RS Aero Series – Start of the seasons

by Matt Thursfield and Mike Taylor on 28 Apr 2015 The weekend of 25th/26th April saw the Start of Seasons for the RS Aero fleet at Northampton SC, sailing alongside the 80+ strong Tera Sport and Pro squads. Forecasted for the weekend were two days of ideal sailing; Saturday at the higher end of perfect, Sunday, the lower end; and that is what we got, 15mph gusting 25 for the first four races, Sunday’s sailing saw the lighter airs from the North saw 8 – 12 mph, with 20-45 degree wind shifts.

Some of the photos of Saturday’s racing from the Pro photographer showed what an excellent day’s sailing we’d had; a trapezoid course with a few windward-leewards to get those runs in order. The discussions from the day were all about Kicker, how much is too much? (if there is such a thing as too much). The lightest man in the nine rig, Mark Lucas was the fastest over the windier day - he was cranking it on and leaving it locked. It was, however, the Aero fives who were taking many of the leading slots come Saturday evening. Will Taylor and Finlo Wright, part of the successful Aeronaut Youth Squad, were able to depower and be in full control, giving them consistently good results. Dave Batchelor was leading the seven rigs, Mark Lucas the nines.

Sunday saw the very different breeze and with it much closer boat on boat racing; it was more about tactics and boat speed rather than survival and depowering. Raising their games in the more manageable conditions were Matt Thursfield, Richard Watsham and Ed Storey in nines and a seven rig respectively. Four more races were delivered by the ultra efficient Northampton race team. Ed led the fleet around for much of races six and seven to make up for the challenges of Saturday’s wind – those kicker conversations made a huge difference to Ed’s speed around the racetrack. By the end of the eighth race of the weekend, the fleet came ashore, all of us having learnt a huge amount about what works and what doesn’t.

With the contrasting conditions over the weekend, it was real test of Aero sailing. Winning this inaugural event was ex Tera World Champion, Will Taylor, from Brightlingsea holding on to his overnight lead. Matt Thursfield came through to take second, Mark Lucas third. Some great prizes were handed out to the top four along with a couple of spot prizes, Maggie Dunn and Charlie Pearce for their endeavour on the Windy Saturday. Our thanks to Magic Marine for their generous sponsorship and their supporting of the event. Full results are available here.

Huge thanks must also be passed on to Lucy and the Tera team for the outstanding organisation of the event, to Neil Barford and his on the water team’s impressive race management and the hospitality of Northampton SC who just always make it work.

The next RS Aero Events are at Bewl Valley on 2-3 May, followed by the first round of the 2015 UK Series Travellers Circuit at ChelmarshSC on 16th May. Check out website for more on what’s happening with the RS Aero Class.

Full results

Rank	rig	PY	sailno	full name	sailing club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	Nett	Total
First	RS Aero 5	1102	1164	Will Taylor	Brightlingsea SC	1	1	2	3	-6	1	-6	5	13	25
Second	RS Aero 9	1035	1208	Matt Thursfield	Chelmarsh SC	4	5	-13	1	1	-6	2	1	14	33
Third	RS Aero 9	1035	1306	Mark Lucas	Northampton SC	-10	2	1	2	5	-7	5	3	18	35
Fourth	RS Aero 7	1065	1172	David Batchelor	Isle Of Man YC	3	-8	5	-7	4	3	3	4	22	37
Fifth	RS Aero 9	1035	1298	Richard Watsham	Starcross YC	6	3	-8	-8	3	5	4	2	23	39
Sixth	RS Aero 7	1065	1305	Ed Storey	Yorkshire Dales/Ripon	8	-9	6	-9	2	2	1	6	25	43
Seventh	RS Aero 5	1102	1171	Ffinlo Wright	Isle Of Man YC	2	6	3	4	-10	-8	7	7	29	47
Eighth	RS Aero 5	1102	1109	Louis Wright	Hayling Islaand SC	7	4	4	5	-11	9	9	-10	38	59
ninth	RS Aero 5	1102	1183	George Catchpole	Waveney and Oulton	5	7	7	6	8	-10	-10	8	41	61
10th	RS Aero 7	1065	1211	Nick Eales	Lymington Town SC	9	-10	9	10	7	4	8	-12	47	69
11th	RS Aero 5	1102	1108	Charlie Pearce	Dabchicks SC	-13	11	-13	13	9	11	11	9	64	90
12th	RS Aero 5	1102	1296	Maggie Dunn	Lyme Regis SC	11	-13	-13	13	12	12	12	11	71	97