RS400s during the RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club

Of the 105 boats that chose to disregard the weekend's weather forecast and head to the RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland Water, 20 were RS400s.

Uncharacteristically for November it was easy to turn a blind eye to the strength of the breeze on the long morning drive as the Autumn sunshine, blue skies and striking auburn leaves provided some spectacular scenery as a distraction.

There's nothing quite like sunshine to make the day feel more manageable and with shelter from the breeze at the bottom of the slope by the water's edge we were all feeling pretty relaxed at the prospect of a 'better than forecast' day before we headed out for the first and only race of the day.

But it didn't take long before the real conditions hit home. Within a minute or so of hoisting kites and heading out to the start area we found ourselves in a full-on foam-up as big gusts, well into the mid-twenties, swept across the lake as if the big man upstairs was opening and closing a giant heavenly door at the club end of the lake just for fun. And fun it certainly was, so long as you weren't in the middle of a gybe at the time.

RS400s during the RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland - photo © Peter Fothergill / www.fothergillphotography.com

In a change to the normal EOS format, Saturday was a pursuit race while Sunday was three back to back races for each class.

Chasing smaller boats around the outside of a reservoir in a drag race that involves a surplus of two sail reaching and fetching is frequently the norm with pursuit racing and as a result isn't always popular with everyone. But this course was different as the PRO set a slender shaped triangular course with a 2km beat, a similar length downwind slide and a taxing two sail reach across the bottom. The result was a race track which provided plenty of tactical opportunities, but with enough variety to satisfy most, if not all of the classes that were sailing. One to note for future pursuit races perhaps.

When it came to the racing, the breeze was typically in the high teens and low twenties. But with a few lulls down to around 12 knots and gusts peaking at 28 knots, it was a punchy, tiring day in which the mainsheet never got close to the jammer.

Nevertheless, if the changing room banter and tall stories at the bar were anything to go by the two hour race had been well received, particularly by the four RS800s that had smoked the fleet.

RS400s during the RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland - photo © Peter Fothergill / www.fothergillphotography.com

Of those in the RS400s who were entitled to spin good yarns were Michael Simms and Jack Holden [1488] who took a class bullet with ease. Behind them were Sam and John Knight [1202] in second and Adam Whitehouse and Chris Bowness [963] in third.

Continuing the meteorological misinformation theme, Sunday turned out to be a long way from what was advertised. Instead of breeze in the high teens and gusts in the low twenties, we were delivered peak gusts of 6-8 knots for the first of the three races. Tricky, shifty, puffy conditions with more snakes than ladders across the windward leeward course.

Once again Simms and Holden showed the fleet how fast you could make an RS400 go around the course by taking all three races, a dominant, unequivocal performance which handed them the overall title with a 1st as a discard.

RS400s during the RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland - photo © Peter Fothergill / www.fothergillphotography.com

Behind them the scrap for the podium was a closely fought affair with the Knight duo demonstrating that an evening at the bar was no hindrance to performance afloat as they scored two 4th and a 3rd to take second overall. Sean Cleary and Annalise Nixon demonstrated once again how comfortable they are in any kind of breeze to finish just two points behind in third.

With a wind range stretching from minimum to max, a long around the cans course and a series of windward leeward races, only tide and salt water could have provided more variety. For the last big shout of the season, this was surely spot on for which the Rutland race management team deserves a large share of the credit.

Overall Results: