Noble Marine Allen RS100 Nationals at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Day 1

Noble Marine Allen RS100 Nationals Day 1 © James Clapham

Noble Marine Allen RS100 Nationals Day 1 © James Clapham

Luckily Storm Agnes had passed through by the time the RS100 fleet set sail for day 1 of the Noble Marine Allen RS100 National Championships, the penultimate fixture on the Rooster National Tour, but the wind was still blowing hard enough to make it exciting on the water.

The first race saw the fleet get away cleanly and Huw Powell lead at the windward mark, followed by David Smart, Andy Jones and Jeremy Troughton, who gybed early to clear his air, was headed in good pressure and then lifted, gybed back and was surprised (as the heaviest sailor in the fleet and not used to overtaking anyone downhill) to be in the lead at the bottom mark. Huw showed his dominance again upwind on the second beat overtaking Jeremy to lead into the second downwind leg, who again played his lucky card downwind leading at the bottom gate, with a nice tight rounding into the third beat - only to notice a shortened course flag flying on the committee boat, so bearing away and sailing down to the finish line to give Huw the win - not a great way to lose a race! The second group were also confused as to the course change with Andy Jones passing Nigel Wakefield and James Ross in the closing stages to snatch 3rd.

For the second race, the length of the upwind leg was reduced and Nigel showed the fleet a clean set of heels hitting every shift upwind and down, leading from start to finish. Huw and Jeremy had a close tussle throughout with Huw (again) coming out on top, with Netley's Bart Brigden showing good pace claiming 4th ahead of Stephen Jones.

The third and final race of the day was seeing some tired legs, and for the author, normal service being resumed with the breeze slightly easing, Huw showed his class once again winning, but following a battle with Matt Johnson from Weirwood - definitely one to watch for tomorrow after spinnaker pole issues counted him out of the first two races - outside of that it was the team from Netley completing the top 5 with James Ross 3rd, Nigel 4th and Bart 5th.

Overall a good day for Team Netley with the top 5 places all going to Netley sailors - but the comment overheard in the changing rooms from the Chew Valley team sort of implied that team Netley would self-destruct in the bar ahead of day 2 - time will tell!

Results after Day 1: