RS Aero Magic Marine UK River Championships at Avon SC

by RS Aero UK Class Association on 10 Oct 2016 With many RS Aeros based on rivers throughout the UK there was keen interest in a dedicated UK River Championships. Avon SC on the Severn near Gloucester and their emerging fleet of 7 RS Aero volunteered as the hosts of the first annual Champs.

The challenges and enjoyment of river sailing are a plenty and can prove more interesting and rewarding than open water, especially in a pretty spot like at Avon SC. Befittingly, this is where the RS Aero designer, Jo Richards, sailed through his youth with the testing river environment in which to develop his talents towards his Olympic medal. Jo's top tip for this event was; 'Sail intuitively; you don't have time to consider a decision! Embrace and enjoy the challenges.'

The fleet did exactly that with a fleet of 23 turning up from all directions. Other river clubs represented were York RI, Bradford on Avon, Severn and Lymington. The Severn here has a good 60m of width providing space for a good fleet whilst also compacting the racing nicely. With the light/medium breeze on the sheltered river sailors opted to make the most of the Aero’s flexibility to power up with the spread being eighteen ‘9’ rigs and five ‘7’ rigs.Theamplenorth easterly provided a windward-leeward straight up the river.

Racing was intense; jam packed starts and calls for ‘room’ off the shore. Tacking technique was at a premium, as was acceleration skill and the ability to keep the boat moving though the shifts and lulls.The 18 RS Aero 9s filled the start line two deep jostling for position ready to accelerate hard on the gun. On each windward leg we did over 25 tacks each totting up towards 300 each over the day! Now we know how Antony Lynall tacks to gracefully!

Peter Barton took the wins in the 9s, but only after some epic battles with Ben Rolfe, Gareth Griffiths, Antony Lynall and Harry Joyce. Those battles proved so engulfing that on more than one occasion the leaders were so focused they sailed straight past the marks! Just one point separated second-5th with Antony taking second and Gareth third overall and first Master.

In the RS Aero 7s once again this year the Ladies showed the way with Fiona Lucas pipping John Harvey to first overall. Third was local river sailor David Harris from Severn SC (situated on the River Avon - long story!).

Thanks to Magic Marine for supporting the Class with an awesome spread of prizes and many thanks to the members from Avon SC for welcoming the RS Aero fleet to their pretty stretch of the river Severn. We had a fantastic lunch, race management and excellent photos. It was a pleasure for many to experience a different form of racing to what they might be used to.These River Champs will certainly be right up there as one of our most pleasantly memorable day’s racing of this year, and we have had some great ones.

Next up this coming Saturday 15th October are the RS Aero Inland Championships at Chelmarsh SC near Kidderminster.

This is followed by our Open at Chew on the 22nd and then ‘End of Season’grande finale with the rest of the RS family on 5/6th November at Rutland SC.Chelmarsh and Rutland are the final two stages of both the RS Aero Northern and Southern Circuits, were north meets south!

Results
RS Aero 9
 

Overall	Sail	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Discard	Points
1	2093	Peter Barton	Lymington Town SC	1	1	1	1	2
2	1007	Antony Lynall	Avon SC	3	6	2	6	5
3	1023	Gareth Griffiths	Island Barn Res SC	5	2	4	5	6	1st Master
4	1581	Ben Rolfe	Burghfield SC	2	4	19	19	6
5	1064	Harry Joyce	Bowmoor SC	4	3	3	4	6
6	1509	Peter Craggs	Yorkshire Dales SC	6	5	5	6	10
7	1135	Phil White	Frampton on Severn SC	7	9	6	9	13
8	1011	Andy Warren	Avon SC	8	7	13	13	15
9	1134	Richard Miller	Avon SC	9	8	14	14	17
10	1207	Mark Tissiman	Chelmarsh SC	14	11	7	14	18
11	1753	Nick Downton	Avon SC	10	16	8	16	18
12	2135	Sean Curtis	Avon SC	11	10	12	12	21
13	1010	Peter Lewis	Avon SC	16	12	10	16	22
14	1095	Tony  Jukes	Chelmarsh SC	17	14	9	17	23
15	1404	Roy Smith	Avon SC	13	15	11	15	24
16	1175	Mike Adams	Avon SC	12	13	15	15	25
17	-	Jon Cooper	Bowmoor SC	15	17	19	19	32
18	1654	Mark Lambdin	Bradford on Avon SC	18	18	19	19	36

RS Aero 7
 

Overall	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	Discard	Points
1	1751	Fiona Lucas	Avon SC	1	2	1	2	2	1st Lady
2	1598	John Harvey	Thornbury SC	2	1	2	2	3
3	1618	David Harris	Severn SC	4	3	3	4	6
4	1464	Marcia Lynall	Avon SC	3	4	4	4	7
5	1701	Phil Wright	Gurnard SC	5	5	5	5	10