Gul RS200 Nationals at Restronguet Sailing Club

Action from the RS200 Nationals at Restronguet © Nick Kirk / N D K Photography

Action from the RS200 Nationals at Restronguet © Nick Kirk / N D K Photography

Days 1 & 2:

101 RS200 now have 4 races under the belt in some very varied weather in Falmouth Bay. Yesterday the day started with a very fresh easterly breeze giving a very lumpy sea. Before the heavy weights could get over keen the wind started to ease so when the fleet launched for a 13.00 start there was only a force 2-3 with still a large swell. Steve and Paula Irish found the conditions very much to their liking to record a convincing win from Dave and Nikki Derby and Steve/Laurie Dunn.

Before race 2 could be started the breeze completely faded, amazingly exactly as the weather forecast predicted. There was then a long wait before a very light breeze filled in from the south allowed race 2 to start. Again The Irishs had their turbo on and led throughout on a very shortened race from defending National Champions Tom and Jo Hewitson with Geoff Carveth/Sarah Allen third.

Today there a northerly force 3 which was very patchy on the race course leading to some real snakes and ladders. Dave Giles/Fiona Clark just led from James Stewart/Keith Bedborough at the first mark. Carveth and Allen though picked a real gust and burnt over the top of them very early on the first run. Carveth then pulled out a good lead with the Irishs pulling through to second ahead of Giles and Clark.

The wind became more erratic for race 4 and dropped very light soon after the gate had fully opened. The wind filled back in and anyone near the port layline thought Christmas had arrived early. The Hewitsons had a good lead at the first mark but on the second boat, as the wind picked up so all crews were hiking hard, it paid to hang right and Giles/Clark played the shifts to great affect to take the lead and win from Hewitsons and Martyn Jones/Clare Rowbottom. The Irishs finished 9th and hold the overall lead. Carveth/Allen had a discard with a 27th but still hold second overall with Giles and Hedwitsons only two points behind with the very consistent Jon Lewis/Millie Parsons, counting three 4ths, only a further point behind. The standard is very high throughout the fleet and plenty is going to happen with six more races scheduled.

Day 3:

There was some pleasant sunshine in Falmouth Bay for day 3 of the GUL RS200 National Championships but there was a very erratic north westerly with 40 degree shifts and wind strength fluctuations of 2 forces across the course on every beat. The result was a major game of snakes and ladders on almost every leg for almost every boat in the 102 boat fleet. Gate starting was a real problem as the pathfinder kept on being headed back into the waiting fleet.

In race 5 David Giles/Fiona Clark just led round the windward mark from the Hewitsons who promptly had a major problem with the kite. Giles looked to have the race under control but Dave/Nikki Derby, Steve/Paula Irish and Pete Vincent/Louisa Fewtrell had made major recoveries from poor starts and closed rapidly on the final run. Giles though was the winner by a boat length from the Irish’s, Derby’s and Vincent.

Race 6 and the Irish team of Marshall/Heather King were off to a flying start and were the first to pick up the big starboard slant closely followed by Geoff Carveth/Sarah Allen. The Kings led for a lap before Carveth found the better pressure to win from the Kings and the Derbys, some how being very consistent on such an up and down day. Sam Mettam and Geoff Phillips were fourth with Giles/Clark a very useful fifth.

Its now looking a three horse race. Steve/Paula Irish hold a two point lead but are now discarding a 24th. Giles and Clark in second overall have the advantage of being the only boat with six top ten results. Carveth and Allen in third overall also already have a discard of 26th. It was a bad at the office for the Hewitsons and Jon Lewis/Millie Parsons who now need some major results to get back into contention. But if Wednesday is anything like today anything could and probably will happen.

Day 4:

Family Robertson have fun day in the bay.

The unstable winds remained for day 4 of the GUL RS200 National Championships when frequent large grey clouds kept on sucking wind in from the north west when the system wanted to be south west. This did not stop the Robertson family having a field day with mum Jane, crewed by Helen Rollinson, winning race 7. Elder son Andrew, crewed by Emily Haworth, led race 8 at the first mark on his 17th birthday and finished third.

Race 7 had started in a force 2 but half way up the first beat anyone to the right won the lottery with a lot of pressure and starboard lift. The wily old foxes of Jane Robertson, Ann Jackson/Alan Skeens, Steve/ Alex McQueen and Pete Vincent/Louisa Fewtrell; the combined number of championships these four have competed in nearly equals their combined ages; were the boats to really gain a point they rammed home when they held the breeze to the leeward mark. With the wind fading the PRO shortened course with the front six miles clear in the order of Robertson, Cliff/Becci Millner, Steve/Paula Irish, Jackson, McQueen and Vincent. Chaos then descended as 12th -100th arrived at the leeward mark together as all sorts of new breeze brought everyone down the run.

After a short wait the wind settled down from the north west and a much better race was held in a force3-4. There were still big slants but the mean direction stayed constant throughout. Andrew Robertson led but Geoff Carveth/Sarah Allen had done well from being pathfinder to round in second and soon took the lead. Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudrey, recovering from a mare on day 3, stayed more in the middle on the second beat to jump to second and push Carveth hard to the finish.

The protest committee was kept very busy into the small hours as a number of helms questioned the fairness of race 7 and the gate procedure on race 8. The upshot was that race 7 stood and Dave Giles has been disq from race 8 which has important implications on the overall. Steve and Paula Irish are now 3 points clear of Carveth with Giles a further 8 points behind Its all to play for on the final day with at ast decent south west breeze already set in Falmouth Bay.

Final Day:

After an evening of protests against the race committee over incorrect gate procedure and the fairness of race 7 the GUL RS200 National Championships was concluded in one of the best days at a National Championships the majority of the fleet could remember. The 102 boat fleet found a great force 4, bolt steady from the south west, in Falmouth Bay with a decent sea running. PRO Ian Fraser set a great course and the three leading contenders started to decide the title in fine style.

Geoff Carveth/Sarah Allen had a flying start and led at the first windward mark and looked to be pulling out a huge lead. James Date/Harriet Edwards at last showed some form and found the conditions much to their liking and closed right up to Carveth but could not get by. David Giles/Fiona Clark pulled through the fleet to gain a very important third place. With Steve and Paula Irish in the teens Carveth now had the advantage but the other two leading contenders were still well in touch.

For the final race there was a very even break on the gate start and there were many boats in contention up the first beat. Giles and Clark had started early and flew in on the port layline just to get round the first mark in the lead by the narrowest of margins from Sydenham/Vaudrey, the Dunns and Greenland/Williams. Sydenham took the lead on the run but Giles took the lead again up the second beat after some encouraging words from Sydenham regarding his weight!! Carveth and Irish were struggling in the teens and it became a nail bitter as to how far these two could catch up and finish. Giles won from Sydenham and Dunn; Carveth did catch up to 7th whilst the Irishs stayed in the teens. The results on the water meant that Giles would win by 2 points but everything now depended on his protest for redress against his disqualification the previous day.

The protest was involved as there has been an infringement by Giles on the gate but the race committee had let him start in subsequent starts as they had already abandoned the start. The protest committee had decided that although the race committe had taken the decision to abandon the start there was a delay in flying the correct flags and the infringement had taken place before the race had been properly abandoned. Giles won his case when the protest committee agreed that the protest procedure had not been followed correctly and Giles had no way of knowing he was involved in a protest that concerned him. Many in the fleet felt that natural justice had been done as if the same rules had been applied to a similar scenerio the day before other leading contenders would have been disqualified.

So it was on to the prize giving; only the RS200's can shift their prize giving to the night club they had adopted for the week!! Before the main prize giving the coverted Duckhams of the week was awarded with Trudie Danbury (missing a race to go shopping), Pete Vincent (falling asleep outside his front door for 4 hours), Geoff Carveth ("do you know who I am" to a taxi driver) and Paul Dorer (sleeping with a garden gnome in the garden rather than his girlfriend) the main conteneders. Toby Lewis was the popular winner for spending the entire week thinking he was racing in Plymouth and looking at tide charts etc for Plymouth.

Onto the main prize giving and an emotional David Giles seemed to thank everyone in the fleet in his speech and ended the evening wearing his wife's dress; its the stuff Champions are made of.

Overall Results: (10 races, 2 discards)