POSH RS300 Rooster National Tour at Paignton Sailing Club
by Luke South 14 May 14:00 PDT
10-11 May 2025
Winner Peter Mackin - POSH RS300 Rooster National Tour © Tom Wildy
What is there to say - To be honest it's a bit of a blur!
Saturday provided an oasis of champagne sailing after recent weekends with Four Top(s) RS300 sailors in attendance to take on the Public Enemies of the mixed handicap fleet:
- Pete Mackin - Taniwha - 556 (A large, supernatural creature, often associated with water, that can be benevolent or malevolent)
- Tom Moore - Anaira - 560 (Unique, different, graceful or a symbol of happiness)
- Ed Wilkinson - Red Ed - 456 (For his name is Ed and that's all we know)
- Luke South - Not 520 - 542 ('cos it's not 520)
Team Van (Halen) Life arrived Friday to set up shop early and were pleasantly surprised that the Police weren't called by the morning... As we launched with winds INXS of 15 knots with a big swell, it was going to be a challenging day. Most races Tom and Pete had a Battle to win the pin whilst Luke and Ed conservatively came off the middle. Luke quickly fell into Dire Straits with the 1st of many Slipped-Knots on his new platform resulting in a pause in racing, leaving the three Pretenders to charge out to sea. Luke, hit hard to the left and... Wham! by the windward he was on Pete's transom, with Tom and Ed some way back. This is the way it remained for race one with Pete scoring an impressive 2nd overall - was this the start of a New Order?
Race two was held in similar conditions and again Luke's knot tying skills were found lacking as he parked up allowing Pete to pull away. But Luke managing to cut off Pete'es Air Supply on the final leg to the finish, and Luke ducked to the line to take the win by a centimetre at the most.
Race three and there were signs of the wind dropping, following a now familiar starting pattern. Tom and Pete nailed the pin, whilst Luke broke with tradition and with no gear failure took the lead. The racing was closer than the results looked with Tom, Pete and Luke all at the front at some point, though Luke held his nerve to take the win whilst Pete, with no way back, looked for an excuse and went for a swim and broke his tiller extension - he'll be looking to Erasure that race from his memory!
The POSH social lived up to his reputation with great food and catching up with the other fleets. Tom even managed to get into chair fight - a sign of the aggression to come on Sunday. Team Van Life had tough night with a deflated mattress - no REM sleep for them!
Sunday arrived far too early for most, though with Pete's cover still on after the whole fleet had launched, it was business as usual for him. We parked up for a while whilst it tipped down with rain and the wind disappeared before we eventually started in a very light breeze. Luke chose un-wisely up the 1st beat and split from the fleet - There was no Joy (in the) Division as he disappeared. Tom, Pete and Ed however fared better with Tom taking the win, line honours and a handicap bullet too!
Status Quo seemed to have been archived for race four with Tom dominating for another win and 2nd on handicap. The running order was a little complicated at this point - it wasn't a simple ABC - But the pressure was on Pete to deliver. The pin end battle commenced with flashes of Yellow and Orange visible as Tom and Pete dialled up. In a moment of Madness, Tom dropped his tiller, Pete reared off to the right to avoid and his Tears for Fears of dropping out of contention looked set! But A-ha - against the run of form he hit hard right off the Guns and Roses were his by the windward mark as he cruised off to victory in the RS300s and a bronze in the final race on handicap. Tom's aggression and want for retribution from the "incident" the evening prior saw him slam a door on Luke at one mark and then force one open another at the next - dutifully doing his turn he still managed to take the 2nd in race six.
Results:
- Pete Mackin - 1st (1st, 2nd, 2nd, 2nd, 3rd 1st)
- Luke South - 2nd (2nd, 1st, 1st, 4th, 2nd 3rd)
- Tom Moore - 3rd (3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 1st, 1st, 2nd)
- Ed Wilkinson - 4th (4th, 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 4th)
The points and racing were so close and very good humoured all weekend. As a class we believed we did you proud on the overall results in some tricky conditions, proving again what a versatile craft the RS300 is... U2 can join the Fun at Beaver.
Thank you, as always to Rooster for their continued support of the RS300 National Tour.