Sailing Chandlery RS200 Northern Tour at Filey Sailing Club

A glorious weekend at Filey, the venue for the 2020 RS200 Nationals, made for perfect sailing conditions for the sixth round of the Northern Tour.

Three races were sailed on the Saturday in a light to medium wind with Andy/Alex, Ollie/Esther and Martin/Luke all battling for the top spot in each race. Andy and Alex just managing to pick the right shift in each race to take 3 bullets with Ollie/Esther holding on to take 3 seconds keeping them in the running overnight. Martin/Luke managing to keep ahead of fellow Beaver sailors Richard/Brian.

The forecast for Sunday was for breeze on and it didn’t disappoint! It was to be a day of who could hike the hardest, pick the biggest gusts downwind and, most importantly, keep it upright. It was to be a duel between Ollie/Esther and Andy/Alex for the top spot with Andy/Alex only needing to win one of the races to win overall.

The first race saw Ollie/Esther come out fighting and leading from the first windward mark to take the win with Andy/Alex keeping things close in second. Capsizes from Martin/Luke and Richard/Brian left the door wide open for Harry/Emma to charge through to take third.

Another race and another battle between Andy/Alex and Ollie/Esther as the pressure mounted. Only a matter of boat lengths between the two all the way round until the final leeward gate where Andy/Alex capsized on the two sailed gybe into the gate much to the relief of Ollie/Esther. Martin/Luke hoping to capitalise on this but had to settle with third with the speedy recovery from Andy/Alex.

It all came down to the last race for 1st and 2nd. Ollie/Esther needing to win to win overall and Andy/Alex just needing to make sure that didn’t happen. The first advantage went to Andy/Alex with Ollie/Esther over the line and having to double back. However, things were reset at the windward mark as Ollie/Esther managed to get back onto the transom of Andy/Alex. It was to stay like that for the next lap until Andy/Alex managed to pull a gap on the penultimate run which Ollie/Esther couldn’t come back from. Richard/Brian just managing to pip Martin/Luke overall with a 3rd in the final race.

Congratulations to Andy and Alex for winning and to Filey for running the event as part of their annual Regatta. Hopefully we will have similar conditions for the Nationals there next year!

Thank you to Sailing Chandlery for their continued support. We hope to see you all at the final two events of the series later this year.

Overall Results:

Sailing Chandlery RS200 Northern Tour Results: (after six rounds)