RS Feva Fat Face Racing Circuit event

by RS media on 5 Jul 2007 The Lizzie’s – Brown & Adams – organised a fantastic, informal and hotly contested event for the RS Fevas at the Royal Burnham despite a truly horrendous forecast.

John Hardy’s no-nonsense race team laid on true, hard courses with quick turnarounds to get in all 6 promised races over the 2 days. Saturday was sailed in the Roach 2 miles downstream from the club in winds varying from a light 3 to mid 4 from the South.

Sunday saw the fleet sailing across tide in the Crouch just the Burnham side of the Roach in a 4 to 5 with some gust that were measured on the big grin scale (if you were going downwind at the time.

Saturday saw the usual incredibly tight racing with Jamie Bolinbroke/Matt Heathcote being tied on 7 points with Dan Henderson/Taylor Haylett after 3 races. Tied on 8 points were James Hamer/Ben Gratton with Tally Eyre/Holly Tucker.

Amongst the rest there were some very good performances and most boats managed at least one good result amongst their bag. Sam Rowell/Tom Earl were beginning to get the range with steadily improving results whilst the boats from Sevenoaks only managed to make part of the days racing due to school speech-day commitments. Most managed to relax though with a good quality BBQ in the evening.

Sunday looked way more threatening and a number of sailors made an early decision concerning discretion and valour thereby demonstrating a keen awareness of seamanship and the responsibility competitors have for their own safety. Well done!

On the water though the overall results were given a distinct nudge by the hand of fate. Two of the favourites – Bolingbroke & Hamer - lost their rigs whilst flat out planning in the penultimate and last races respectively. Having to work very hard for victory though were Dan Henderson/Taylor Haylett with 3 bullets on the day. Equally hard working were Tally Eyre/Holly Tucker who posted a 4th and two 2’s. Thorpe Bay Yacht Club then swept the board as Laura Sanders/Isobel Duce climbed the last podium place.

Despite their loss of rig & and only discard Hamer/Gratton came 4th whilst Milly Stephens/Cassie Symes were beaten on countback for 5th place by another TBYC boat namely Bruce Spratt/Nick Binnendijk.

The unfortunate Bolly/Heathcote team still got 7th despite having to count one DNC following their parting of ways with the mainsail support system. Sam Rowell/Tom Earl were a creditable 8th counting as top result a 6th.

Will Lowes/Kate Sanders had a storming last 2 races to claim 9th whilst Bertie Palmer/matt Purdon got over their 1st place disappointment (OCS) with a great 3rd and 6th in the last 2 races. Pride of Burnham though were Tom Adams/Joey Bell in 11th comfortably ahead of the lady we started with Lizzie Brown who was crewed by 7 year old Arthur. Merit award deservedly went to Rhiannon Massey/William Massey who improved in every race!

RS Feva, overall positions

1 1768 Dan Henderson Taylor Haylett 3 2 2 1 1 1 7
2 2000 Tally Eyre Holly Tucker 1 4 3 4 2 2 12
3 1464 Laura Sanders Isabel Duce 8 7 6 2 4 5 24
4 1753 James Hamer Ben Gratton 4 3 1 14 5 18 27
5 1689 Bruce Spratt Nick Binnen 9 5 10 5 7 3 29
6 1639 Milly Stephens Cassie Symes 6 6 5 8 9 4 29
7 1765 James Bollingbroke Matthew Heathcote 2 1 4 3 28 28 38
8 1374 Samuel Rowell Tom Earl 13 11 8 6 10 12 47
9 1226 Will Lowes Kate Sanders 10 10 20 19 6 7 52
10 627 Robert Palmer Matt Purdon 5 17 28 23 3 6 54
11 1868 Tom Adams Joey Bell 12 12 11 9 11 18 55
12 497 Lizzie Brown Arthur Brown 23 16 9 11 17 8 61
13 241 Joshua Crisp Harry Hinkins 15 9 17 16 13 10 63
14 450 Diane Roberts Sarah Roberts 14 8 18 17 15 14 68
15 839 Libby Watkins Abbie Heathcote 19 23 16 7 14 16 72
16 1125 Sarah Adams Hannah Harden 17 19 22 13 12 11 72
17 9 Laurence Gibbons Nick Ashton 28 28 14 15 8 13 78
18 1434 Hannah Maunder Rebecca Partington 21 18 12 10 20 18 78
19 1124 Robbie Hooper Fred Brown 11 20 15 23 16 18 80
20 1486 Molly Brown Charlotte Hooper 20 22 24 12 20 9 83
21 936 Hugo Jones-Warner Hugo Tucker 7 15 7 28 28 28 85
22 1126 Rhianon Massey William Massey 22 21 21 18 18 15 93
23 1522 Chris Hardy Joshua Aldridge 16 14 13 28 28 28 99
24 2419 Becky Stowe Rory Crisp 18 24 23 21 20 18 100
25 1521 Tom Corrigan Jake Braybrook 24 13 19 28 28 28 112
26 8 Imogen Palmer Peter Chinnock 28 28 28 22 19 17 114
27 338 Sam Weetch Sarah Hardy 28 28 28 20 28 18 122