RS Aero UK National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Day 1&2
by RS Aero UK Class Association 21 Aug 2021 01:52 PDT
18-22 August 2021
Opening day of the RS Aero UK National Championships © Peter Hickson
Day 1
A tricky day on the water! Sloppy chop and a light fluctuating breeze kept the 145 RS Aero sailors working hard throughout the day! The racing challenges were quickly forgotten when back on shore with Drinks for Tallies hosted by RS Sailing and the daily prize-giving going deep down the fleet with top tip gems shared by the leaders!
In the RS Aero 5 and RS Aero 7s the day rewarded consistency with it difficult to get three good results. Doing the best job of that and top of the scoreboard overnight were Tom Ahlheid and Craig Williamson respectively. The RS Aero 9 day belonged to Ben Rolfe with a 1,1,2 taking a commanding lead.
Day 2
More wind than expected! After a two hour postponement ashore the fleet were rewarded with a nice 12-14kn out of the SW with waves building through the afternoon - Hayling Bay at its best! This gave an opportunity for sailors to put their shoulders back upwind and seek out large rewards for good wave catching techniques down the run.
Tim Hire smashed the RS Aero 7s knocking in three firsts and Greg Bartlett two seconds, both making amends from struggling on Day 1. Three consistent scores see Craig Williamson on Ben Flower at the top with mover and shaker Jack Miller moving up with two thirds.
David Peaty won the day in the RS Aero 5s with two firsts to take the lead with Andrew Frost second with two thirds.
Three wins in the RS Aero 9s saw Peter Barton take the overnight lead however Ben Rolfe is keeping it close with three seconds.
Drinks for Tallies and Aero chocolate on coming ashore went down well, hosted today thanks to Selden Mast.
Thanks to the support of Rooster, Selden, RS Sailing and Harken the championships enjoys an excellent spread of goodie prizes with daily awards. Sailors can only win a daily award once each and the leaders need to past on their top tip on how they did it! 'Drinks for Tallies' is already proving popular as a prompt tallying incentive with RS Sailing on Wednesday and today, Thirsty Thursday, is hosted by Selden Mast.
Full results at www.hisc.co.uk/sailing/open-events/rs-aero-nationals