Rooster & Zest RS400 Southern Tour at Warsash Sailing Club

Rooster & Zest RS400 Southern Tour at Warsash © Andy Buchanan

Rooster & Zest RS400 Southern Tour at Warsash © Andy Buchanan

The RS400 Rooster Southern tour at Warsash got off to a lazy start. With barely a whisper of wind racing was postponed for an hour to allow the tide to change and something to stir up in the Solent. However, the weather was warm and the breakfast was excellent so most competitors sat out on the veranda engaging in some classic sailing chat.

After a solid hour the signal to launch was made and the procession out to the start line began. There was not a lot of wind but enough to move the over canvassed 400 along quite nicely with some of the lighter crews venturing up onto the side deck.

Race one was started cleanly first time in a South easterly force 2 and Steve Cockerill burst out of the blocks to assert some early dominance. It was tricky racing with many snakes and ladders to be had. The presence of the Solent tides caught out a few competitors requiring the fleet to point about 20 degrees below the wing mark in order to remain on the rum line. Steve Restall and Chris Stubbs came in 2nd with Howard Farbrother and Lou 3rd.

Race two was even more challenging than race one. With the majority of the fleet desperately sailing downwind to stem the tide at 20 seconds to go it was amazing that this one also got away first time. In this roll of the dice Steve and Chris proved themselves to have mastered the sloppy Solent and took the line honours with Howard and Lou 2nd and sibling superstars Caroline and Adam Whitehouse 3rd. The rest of the fleet was pretty mixed up, the leaders from the first race Steve and Sarah spent the majority of the race near the back of the pack, proving their were tight tussles to be had all over the course.

Rooster & Zest RS400 Southern Tour at Warsash - photo © Andy Buchanan

Race three started in significantly more breeze, with enough to get fully hiked and planing at points. Bruce and Andrea from WSC stormed the first beat but there was some confusion about the spreader at the top mark which resulted in the fleet catching up. Alex and Robin fought their way to front up the second beat and had a significantly lead which was quickly closed on the final downwind by Steve & Sarah Cockerill and Sean Cleary making for a tight finish.

The second day brought more pondering upon the vagrancies of the weather, the race team made a sensible decision and allowed people to go home after a couple of hours. I won't mention what the Bramblemet weather station was outputting at 1pm that day, best not to think about that and enjoy the remaining tea and cakes which were kindly provided by the critically acclaimed Warsash volunteers.

Rooster & Zest RS400 Southern Tour at Warsash - photo © Andy Buchanan

Overall Peter Mitchell and Sarah Newton from Warsash were the most consistent but narrowly missed out on the win by countback to Howard and Lou. Steve Restall and Chris Stubbs came in 3rd. Many thanks to everyone who made the effort to travel down and to all the volunteers that made the event a success, hope to see you all back here again next year.

Many thanks to the Southern Tour sponsors Rooster and Zest, plus Rope4Boats, GP Sails, Force 4 Chandlery and Smith Covers for their amazing post prizes.

Next up Salcombe!

An interesting insight from Steve Cockerill: 'You have to be humble to win'.

"This is a subject that I have visited and revisited many times in sailing. Just when you think you are invincible, you find yourself in last place.

As a coach, I found myself discussing this subject with many sailors who found themselves struggling with their results despite spending many months of intensive training."

Read Steve's great blog, which expands on this theme and includes some boat bimbles here.

Many more photos available here.

Overall Results: