Volvo Noble Marine RS400 UK & Irish Nationals at Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club - Days 1 & 2

Volvo Noble Marine RS400 UK & Irish Nationals © Bradley Quinn

Two days into the RS400 UK & Irish National Championships at Royal North of Ireland in Belfast, light winds were shuffling the points race by race leaving some of the big guns struggling to break free to the top of the table. All, that is, apart from one pair who seemed to have found order in the tricky conditions.

Day 1

Only the plane spotters in the fleet would have noticed when Belfast airport switched runways, but the move was significant. Coupled with the collapse of the cumulus clouds around Belfast city and the surrounding land to the south, the indications were that the thermal breeze that had been providing a steady ENE breeze in the loch had switched off and the SE gradient breeze that had been forecast had now taken over - even though it wasn't yet on the water's surface.

The switch caused chaos throughout most of the fleet particularly for those that had bet their positions on heading out to sea once again for the third and final beat. This time they found themselves on the wrong side off the new breeze. The result was that the fleet turned inside out for all but the front runners.

Among those to slip through unscathed was Nick Craig and Toby Lewis, fresh back into the class. Indeed, so fresh that at 7am on the day of the first race they rocked up, hot foot from the Merlin nationals in Looe with a brand new 400 that had yet to be unwrapped and proceeded to build it between breakfast and midday.

"We had to assemble everything and only used the hammer once," said Nick. "The fact that we were so late broke all the rules of championship preparation but it was that or go back to work."

By the time they launched their boat was been covered in tuning notes and strands of tape to mark the various rig settings - never has the multiple former national champions been quite so public about their settings.

On the race course, despite a poor start, Craig and Lewis (1500) forged their way to the front to take the first win of the event. Peter Kennedy and Stephane Kane (1339) from the host club were second and Stephen and Sarah Cockerill (1489) from Stokes Bay in 3rd.

For the second race and with the light 5-7 knot breeze coming offshore from the south and the tide sweeping to the east, all the visitors were back to square one when it came to decoding the conditions. But after three laps it was clear that two teams had figured things out as the Cockerills (1489) took a win with Craig/Lewis (1500) taking third to leave the pair one equal points in pole position at the end of the day.

Nick Craig and Tobytastic Lewis at the Volvo Noble Marine RS400 UK & Irish Nationals - photo © Bradley Quinn

Proving that local knowledge was handy, Paul McLaughlin and Owen McKinley (1406) from Cushendall SC finished second in the second race.

Behind them some of the favorites in the field were already carrying some big scores, shuffling the pecking order in a way we haven't seen for some time.

"At this rate I think there's going to be quite a battle in the bronze fleet this week," joked Kevin Podger (1439).

Day 2

A slight increase in wind strength to 7-8 knots and a more stable wind direction from the West suggested that racing would be more straightforward on Day 2 - it wasn't.

A new direction and an earlier start meant that anything anyone had learned about the tide was now irrelevant. In addition the tight competition in the fleet meant that after each start the pack arrived at each of the marks en-masse making it hard to break free at any point.

Approaching the first windward mark in good shape in the leading pack was no guarantee for future success, especially if you arrived on port tack.

Discovering a wall of boats on starboard that were battling to lay the mark against the ebbing tide provided nowhere to go left plenty to end up gybing before the mark in an attempt to find a gap in the wall of sail.

But once again it was Craig and Lewis (1500) that took the upper hand winning race the first race and taking second in the second.

By now, the former multiple national champions extended their overall lead there were others who were making their presence felt too as they delivered top five positions. Among them; Mark Oakey (also a former RS400 National Champion) and Ben Robertson (1463), Robert Espey and Richard McCullough (1006) from Ballyhome YC and Mike Simms and Jack Holden (1488) from Carsington SC and Arun SC.

Results after Day 2: