Volvo Noble Marine RS200 Nationals – Paralympic Medal Winner to sail

by Sally Campbell on 18 Jul 2015 With the Volvo Noble Marine National Championships just over two weeks away, our big announcements this week is that Paralympian medal winner Niki Birrell has announced that not only will he be running the coaching on the warm-up day, but he will also be entering the event himself.

Sally Campbell RS Class Association Secretary caught up with Niki, to ask why he has chosen the 200 Nationals for his recreational sailing. His answer was to the point and summed up the fleet’s ethos “You can’t beat the combination of highly competitive racing and fun, full-on social programme,” he said, and having raced in the fleet at the RS Games in Weymouth back in2011, he knows what to expect.

Niki won’t be expecting an easy ride though, with some of the best known names in RS200 sailing, a good smattering of young hotshots and the RS200 being chosen as the 2015 Endeavour trophy boat the competition is set to be tougher than ever. But not all the booty will go to the front runners - the fleet’s unique buddy group system, plus gold, silver and bronze divisions ensure a good spread of the prizes, this year including the ever-popular Harken items, plus new for 2015, superb products from Lennon Racewear. Wonder who will get buddied up with Niki and crew Sarah?!

Saturday coaching is a regular feature of the Volvo Noble Marine RS200 National Championships which run from Sunday second - Thursday 6th August. The session aims to give both boat set-up and boat-handling advice, as well some venue-specific tips. With Niki as the coach, it has been more popular than ever and at the time of going to press there are only three spaces remaining.