RS800 Winter Championships

by Ralph Singleton on 26 Feb 2011 The RS800 Winter Championship was held at Grafham, possibly one of the best inland venues for the class with its vast available sailing area. It was somewhat surprising that only 15 boats turned up (may be the cost of petrol is becoming prohibitive) or indeed that there is not a large fleet of 800s at Grafham.

The forecast was for wind to slowly decrease during Saturday then increase strongly on Sunday. As a consequence Peter Saxton our PRO for the weekend (congratulations Peter on being made an International Race officer) decided to go for four races on Saturday.

The first two were held in a force three with Ben Schooling and George Kingsnorth having a close tussle with Nick Charles and Chris Martin but holding out top take the bullet. In race two new boys Jeremy Collins and James Penty led the way taking the gun from Nick and Chris. The wind then dropped a notch for the last two races with some big shifts starting to require some thought. Nick and Chris won race three and Justin Deal and Ollie Page decided it was time to play and won race four. Ralph and Ollie Singleton clearly liked the shifty, Chew Valley like conditions and finished the day off with two seconds. So overnight Nick and Chris led with Justin and Ben vying for second. Peter Saxton had a great day turning the races round and setting great courses.

The wind duly arrived on Sunday and blew away the alcoholic haze pretty quickly. 20-25 kts from the south provided a good test for the fleet. Despite sleeping in the car overnight Justin and Ollie started where they finished with a bullet closely followed by Ben and George. More of the same in race sic with some of the fleet deciding that the near perfect skiff conditions (apart from a few large gusts) were a little challenging. Ralph and Ollie led the start to finish fending of challenges from Justin and Ollie (took a dip to cure the hangover) and Rob Watson and john Clifton who had put together a very consistent series. So it is possible sail well in light and heavy winds.

So all in all a great weekend sailing with the top 5 finishing within four points of each other. Justin and Ollie took the honors by a point from Ralph and Ollie in second and Rob and John third. Thanks to all at GWSC particularly Peter Saxton and his race team.

Rank	Fleet	SailNo	Division	HelmName	CrewName	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Total	Nett
1st	RS800	1133		Justin Deal	Ollie Page	Burghfield SC	5	-12	3	1	1	4	26	14
2nd	RS800	1166		Ralph Singleton	Ollie Singleton	CVLSC	-7	7	2	2	3	1	22	15
3rd	RS800	1144		Nick Charles	Chris Martin	Burghfield SC	2	2	1	-8	8	3	24	16
4th	RS800	1153		Rob Watson	John Clifton	Royal Lymington YC	3	4	-8	3	4	2	24	16
5th	RS800	11		Ban Schooling	Goerge Kingsnorth	Helensburgh SC	1	3	5	7	2	(16.0 DNC)	34	18
6th	RS800	1146		Chris Webber	Emma Pethybridge	Datchet Water SC	8	8	4	5	6	(16.0 DNC)	47	31
7th	RS800	1127		Derek Buchanan	Elaine Buchanan	Oxford SC	-10	9	9	6	7	5	46	36
8th	RS800	985		Dan Kilsby	Bart Bridgen	Stokes Bay SC	6	5	6	4	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	53	37
9th	RS800	1020		Jeremy Collins	James Penty	Beaver SC	4	1	7	10	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	54	38
10th	RS800	1072		Alex Farr	Marcelle Newbold	Weston SC	9	11	11	9	5	(16.0 DNC)	61	45
11th	RS800	806		David Hand	Georgina Hand	Northampton SC	11	6	10	11	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	70	54
12th	RS800	1131		Ant Harvey	Mike Stone	Mumbles YC	(16.0 DNC)	13	12	12	16.0 DNC	6	75	59
13th	RS800	1054		Neil Farman	James Gibbons	Datchet Water SC	12	10	14	13	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	81	65
14th	RS800	990		Gaspar Vanhollebeke	Filppo Pages	West SC	13	14	13	(16.0 OCS)	16.0 DNC	16.0 DNC	88	72
15th	RS800	1171		Anthony Mee	Clare Rickard	Datchet Water SC	14	15	(16.0 DNC)	16.0 DNC	16.0 DNC	16.0 DNC	93	77

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