RS400 Inland Championship 2026 at Grafham Water Sailing Club

RS400 Inland Championship at Grafham © Paul Sanwell / OPP

With high pressure over southern England all weekend, the light forecast still didn't put off 16 teams travelling from the south coast and from northern England. The Race team postponed the start allowing time for some interesting boat bimbling chat on the sunny lawn in front of the club. By 2pm the breeze had filled in enough to start a race in 6-8kts.

Paul and Anna (Sunsail) Smalley (Chew Valley Lake SC) took off from the pin end and worked the significant shifts to put themselves in the mix at the windward mark. Hamish Gledhill and Ollie Brown (West Riding SC) and Charlie and Caroline Exley (Leigh and Lowton SC) joined the Smalleys and this group of 3 boats pulled away from the fleet. Hamish and Ollie eventually took the win from Paul and Anna, with Charlie and Caroline in third.

The second race saw many boats once again attempting to work the left of the first beat, but a big right-hand shift saw Sam Knight and Chris Bownes (Lyme Regis / Sutton SC) come to the party. In a dying breeze, the heavy wind specialists held on to their lead and took the win from George and Rosie Madin (WOBYC) sailing the 400 for the first time together finishing in second from Charlie and Caroline in a consistent 3rd. As the wind was now below 3kts, the Race team made the call to finish racing for the day.

Grafham put on a great meal for everyone which was followed by a "Dinghy Drive", an RS sailing version of the popular Beetle Drive game - multiple prizes were up for grabs and eagerly sought after. The completed paper forms were then put to good use with a paper aeroplane competition and then full use was made of the table football, before the bar shut for the night.

RS400 Inland Championship at Grafham - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

After a clear sky and a chilly night, Sunday arrived slightly overcast and windless. However, as we ate our Full English, the windmills on the far side of the lake started to turn and our resident glider expert Matt Sheahan (Warsash SC) proceeded to enlighten us with his cloud observation forecast, which gave us all hope for the day. Sure enough, after a short postponement, a nice 8-10kts and sunshine appeared and we all hastily got changed and jumped into our boats ready to do battle for as many races as the Race Team could throw at us.

Paul and Anna were a little too hasty in the third race and were OCS, leaving the rest of the fleet to figure out which side of the course was paying today. Gains were coming from both sides, but Hamish and Ollie showed a clean pair of heels to the rest of us with a predominant right hand side liking and good speed to take the win from Dave Exley and Dee Osmond (Leigh and Lowton SC) who was relieved to have his son Charlie behind him at last! Sam and Chris were finding their groove in the building breeze finishing in third.

The wind was now steadily blowing over 10kts and the racing was hotting up. In race 4, Hamish and Ollie stamped their growing confidence on the rest of the fleet with another solid race win, followed by the usual suspects Sam and Chris and Charlie and Caroline.

Going into the last race Hamish and Ollie were counting 3 race wins and Sam and Chris had a first, second and third. All Hamish and Ollie had to do was to not let Sam and Chris beat them by more than 3 places and the win was theirs.

In the end, Paul and Anna took the win with an inspired left hand corner on the last beat, followed by Dave and Dee and then Charlie and Caroline. Hamish finished in 4th, 2 places ahead of Sam and Chris in 6th to take his first and very well deserved RS400 Inland Championship. Well done Hamish and Ollie.

As this was the last race in the Rooster National Tour, prizes were also awarded and Sam and Chris were crowned National Tour Winners.

Huge thanks to all at Grafham Water Sailing Club for providing some excellent racing and a brilliant Saturday social. Thank you also to event and tour sponsors Rooster Sailing.

The final race in the Northern Tour calendar is Notts County on 16-17th October - hope to see as many there as possible.

RS400 Inland Championship at Grafham - photo © Paul Sanwell / OPP

Overall Results: