Volvo Noble Marine RS200 National Championship – Day 1, 2, 3

by rs200sailing.org on 30 Aug 2017 Great sunshine in the seaside town of Tenby. Sandcastles built, sunglasses required and many ice-creams consumed.

After a one hour postponement, giving those of the the fleet who had started the social with a bang on Sat night the time to recover and those with small people the opportunity to build giant sandcastles the fleet headed out into a sunny but light wind bay.

Race one - Johnny and Sarah McGovern were pathfinder and got the fleet away on the first start, with huge grins and great pace. Early out the gate looked good, with fabulous tide creating a travellator up the race course to the windwark mark. Hamish Walker/Emma Clarke rounded in first, closely followed by Ben Palmer/Amy Seabright, Ross Thompson/ James Scott in the red machine and Chay Taylor and Niamh.

Downwind it was all to play for with snakes and ladders all over the place, especially at the leeward mark, where tide made it pretty tricky to get round the gate. Ben/Amy had a storming run to take the lead, with Maria Stanley and Rob Henderson jumping into third, behind Hamish/Emma.

With decreasing breeze and a right shift, the fleet were being pushed to the windward mark making the last beat difficult to gain places but very easy to loose. Ben/Amy first, Stanley/Henderson second and Hamish/Emma third.

Race two was started in a decreasing breeze, with a forecast for the breeze to go right and the fleet split hard in the decision making. Those who went early looked great for the first five minutes, until the right breeze came in and those who started late felt vindicated as they shot towards the windward mark. Sadly the pathfinder had some issues and the race was later abandoned following a number of protests and some significant bar chat and the rumour mill, to be sailed later on in the event.

Day two

After a well-earned lie in the fleet was scheduled to start at 1300, so after many cups of tea, a rules seminar and some great boat chat the fleet launched once more into the fabulous Tenby bay. More breeze, still lots of tide and hundreds of jellyfish was going to make for an interesting day.

Race three - Maria Stanley and Rob Henderson were like a rocket ship out of the start, started early and a few minutes later with their ballistic speed were able to tack and cross the fleet. They extended their lead for the rest of the race with Rob hiking far too hard upwind, making it look easy! The rest of us mere mortals kept hiking and duly arrived at the windward mark as a rather large group. Many a duck was required for those who came in on the port layline.

The fight for second to 10th was on! With much changing places both up and downwind, it all came down to the last gybes into the last leeward for second to seventh. This saw Ben/Amy in second and Arthur and Mary Henderson screaming in on the plane from the left to third with the rest of us in aggressive soak mode .

Race four - Alistair Norris and Helen Summersgill smashed the gate start and we got away without incident. Jonny and Sarah McGovern destroyed the fleet on upwind pace to lead into the windward mark closely followed by Ben and Amy. After the first run it was clear there were three major battles on. first and second was nip and tuck between Ben/Amy and Johnny/Sarah.

Third-10th was epically close, with yet again snakes and ladders to be had and it all to play for downwind, with every subtle low shift making the difference. The third battel for top 20 was all set to be the same, with groups of boats arriving at the windward together, showing what close boat speed the 200 fleet has and one small mistake can send you spiralling back down the results..

Ben and Amy managed to just hold off a rapid Jonny and Sarah, although there were some nervous moments for Ben and Amy when the spinnaker hoisted and the clew and tack were tangled together at the end of the pole. In the closely fought battle for third– 10th Maria and Rob smashed the right corner, some would say “rang the bell” to take third , just in front of Ed Whitehead and Millie Alcock and Alistair/Helen. .

After day two it is clear to see that those who partook in the light wind practice and cocktails of Café Flambé (The Flambé Bullets of Ben and Amy, Maria and Rob, Hamish and Emma) in the hot sunshine of Lake Como for the RS Eurocup has paid dividends so far as they lock out the top three on the score board. It is well worth a trip to Carnac next year – for sunshine, excellent racing and of course some cheeky Nationals practice on holiday!

Day three

After what turned into a big night for some last night (Tom McLean/Tommy Darling/Syd McLean et al) where karaoke followed from Julian's questionably intellectual quiz, the sailors arrived early to the boat park for a three race day.

Race 1 was swifly started with Caroline Croft/Alex Warren as the pathfinder, with one recall the race was underway in relatively light winds, it paid to bang hard left up the beat to make use of the shift, At the sailors request the first beat was made longer so those who chose the left were set up nicely for the race. Race one was won by Ben Palmer/Amy Seabright.

Three hours and three attempts later, race two was FINALLY underway! With lots of bobbing about the sailors were eager to get going. Young guns Henry and Lucy were the pathfinder, special mentions to the person who managed to get their bowsprit through the A frame of the Gate RIB and Matt Whitfield who was OCS.

Once the race was going the wind had filled in nicely and it was breeze on! The race officer set a great course which Jonny McGovern played the best to have a stellar lead in this race – with lots of sailors over standing on port and the tide equally catching many out, the windward mark roundings were made interesting but clean sailing was observed by the fleet.

Race three was turned around very quickly as it started to get later into the day and sailors were anxious to get ready for the nights big social – Under the Sea fancy dress!! It paid to play the shifts and have good boat speed for this race which was shown by ??? who won this race with it being shortened to two laps by the race officer who clearly took pity on the sailors.

We all know the arguably most important race is the race back to shore/showers/the bar so many sailors seemed to speed in to get their fishy costumes on ready for tonight’s social.