420 Inland Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

32 teams from across the country descended on Rutland SC for the 420 Inland Championship, the last opportunity to get some racing in before the Youth nationals in two weeks time.

As the fleet launched a light patchy South Easterly trickled across the lake - it was going to be a tricky day of racing.

The first race got away cleanly and was led almost from start to finish by Noa Moskovitch and Gabs Burlton until they unfortunately fell into a hole on the approach to the final mark and got swallowed up but the pack. Harry George and Ralph Cawthorn went on to win followed by Sabine Potter and Merle Nieuwland in 2nd with Tilda Brayshay and Charlie Howard in 3rd.

Race 2 saw Noa and Gabs recover from their frustrations of Race 1 to win by a comfortable margin from Tilda and Charlie followed in 3rd by Arwen Fflur and Matthew Rayner.

Race 3 was a repeat of race 2 but this time Joe Jones and Hennie Burlton came in 3rd behind the very impressive performances of Noa and Gabs in 1st and Arwen and Matthew in 2nd.

Race 4 was a demonstration of light wind ability by Noa and Gabs with another decisive win ahead of Arwen and Matthew with Joe Warwicker and Edie Carter taking 3rd, a nice return to form after a few months away from the fleet.

After a night of continual rain Sunday dawned with a little more breeze. Noa and Gabs picked up where they left off on Saturday with another decisive race win. The old boys Marsbar Marsden and Haydn Sewell showed the youngsters how it's done with 2nd with Imogen Wade and Hugo Valentine coming in 3rd.

Race 5 saw the wind build a little more with some movement up the first beat mixing the fleet up by the first mark. Having had a steady first day Joe Jones and Hennie Burlton got into their stride to take 1st from Arwen and Matthew with the West Kirby Legends George and Olivia Creasy taking 3rd.

6th for Noa and Gabs gave them the Inland Championship title with a race to spare. The pack behind was tight tough with everything to play for. Going into the last race Arwen and Matthew were just ahead of Tilda and Charlie with Joe and hennin just a couple of points back in 4th.

With the sun finally making an appearance Pat Bromilow sailing with Thomas Kelsall took the final race in style closely followed by Arthur Greaves and Angus McEwen. Arwen finished 3rd to secure 2nd overall, Joe and Hennie 4th to give them the final spot on the podium just ahead of Neil and Haydn.

Noa and Gabs impressive win is the first major title for an all Female team for a number of years - an outstanding achievement. Behind them the top 10 was packed with mixed teams. A great indicator of the strength of the UK fleet especially following the GBR 1,2,3 for the mixed teams at the recent San Remo Carnival event.

Next stop for the fleet is the RYA Youth Nationals at WPNSA - ISAF Youth Worlds Selection event and Europeans Selector 3.

Overall Results: