RS200 Inland Championships – Bumper turnout at Chew Valley

by RS Association on 21 Oct 2010 98 RS200s arrived at a sunny but cold Chew Valley Lake SC for the final ‘major’ of the season over the weekend 16/17 October. CVLSC proved to be perfect hosts, serving up plenty of bacon butties and cups of tea whilst we cleaned our boats of the dreaded hard travelling killer shrimps. More importantly they served up a lovely force 3-4 from the north blowing straight down the lake. This allowed PRO Keith Harris to set a good sized windward-leeward course and, with the forecast for Sunday dire, get in four races.

With the fleet split into flights, each race having two starts of 50 boats, racing was always going to be tight especially with it seemed much of the 470 squad taking part plus National Champions from other classes. The breeze also couldn’t quite make up its mind in terms of direction and strength. However, the newly reunited Ben Saxton/Kate Macgregor found the conditions completely to their liking and dominated the day, scoring three bullets and discarding a second. Behind though, there was little consistency.

Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls shocked the fleet by winning the first race and then scored two other top results. James Peters/Alan Roberts rounded off a very steady day by winning the final race. Nick Charles/Jane Gilbert looked to be in the groove, scoring two bullets but spoiled their scorecard with an ugly 16th and 14th. Likewise, Ian Pickard/Loopy Lucy’s bullet in the final race was marred by a few shockers in the other races – it’s not often a race winner can only just sneak into the top 30 overall!

Sunday dawned bright but windless and a quick decision was made to can racing for the weekend. With Saxton/Macgregor winning comfortably overall, it was tight behind due to the flight system scoring, with nine points covering the next 10 places. Chris Catt/Ally Martin proved that being horrifically hung-over is no hindrance to sailing ability by ending up second over, counting all top five places, while James Peters/Alan Roberts just edged out Ugly/Tessa Nichols for third, much to everyone’s relief.

Top silver fleet boat was Ed and Izzy Fitzgerald, with Sam Maxfield/Pete Matthews in second and Karen Baker/Lucy Matthews third. Suzy Russell/Emma Derby took a good win in the bronze fleet, from Matt Bromley/Andrea Morgan and David Sweet/Jackie Ireland.

Top prizes were provided to the overall winners thanks to CVLSC while Force 4 Bristol gave away some great bags to the top two juniors, Izzy Fitzgerald and Meg Fletcher. Tony and Zach Freer walked away with the £35 voucher from Force 4 for top home boat.

Overall, a great event. Many thanks to CVLSC for some quality organisation and warm welcome and all the sponsors for the prizes. It’s not quite the end of the season though, as the final SEAS open at Wembley SC takes place on Sunday 31st October. Then the RS season finishes at Rutland SC on November 13th /14th for a multi-fleet RS final.

Fleet racing on Saturday followed by a party and an RS Pursuit Race on the Sunday – hopefully see you there for a good final sail before winter properly sets in.

Top five results
1st – Ben Saxton and Kate Macgregor
2nd – Chris Catt and Ally Martin
3rd – James Peters and Alan Roberts
4th – Pete Vincent and Tessa Nicholls
5th – Ben Palmer and Amy Seebright

For more information and complete results, please go to: www.rs-association.com