RS500 End of Season Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

Well, the wind was frisky and the temperature was freezy, so there was a pretty good challenge to keep getting round the course even if the turnout was decidedly below par.

Four intrepid sailors in two teams braved the elements, Peter Curtis and Keith Sykes sailing together for the first time, with Keith just recovering from a cold (or so he thought), and Jamie Freeman and Will Pook giving Will's brand new mast and sails a thorough shake out.

The wind on Saturday was about 20 knots gusting 30 knots, but some of the gusts seemed to last a long, long time, and there were three class races to negotiate. We thought we were going to be lumped in with the RS400s, but were given our own start on a very long line designed to accommodate 36 RS400s.

Race 1 saw both boats starting at the committee boat end. Peter and Keith seemed to have an edge up the beat (at least on starboard tack) and reached the windward mark first. The run was fun, and the gybes safe and we started upwind again. Peter and Keith couldn't help wonder whether the wind really was that shifty, or whether Jamie and Will were going significantly different angles to them upwind - something to do with the rigging of that new mast maybe? Anyway, Keith's recent cold was making him sluggish, and this caused a capsize on the gybe on lap 2, handing the lead back to Jamie and Will, who held onto it for the win in race 1.

Race 2 saw Jamie and Will go for a port end flyer, but they failed to cross the fleet as the initial port bias seemed to have gone by the time of the start. The beat was much closer contested than race 1 and the two boats were very close for the next lap, with Jamie and Will just getting ahead by the end of the second beat. We then started on a run in what felt like the biggest gust of the whole weekend, with some quite decent waves for an inland piece of water. Jamie and Will were nowhere to be seen by the time Peter and Keith made it safely to the gate, and they went on to take race 2. It turned out that Jamie and Will had heard a bang from their rig and the boat had become hard to control. After capsizing to see if they could understand the problem they decided to continue the investigation ashore.

That left only 50% of the fleet for race 3, with Keith shivering quite violently and moving and thinking at sloth-like speed (and definitely not recovered from his cold!). This led to a multiple capsize sequence at the top mark on lap 1, and the decision made to get to the showers before all the RS200s and RS400s could get all the hot water.

Onto Sunday and the pursuit race. The forecast was for slightly less wind and similar size gusts as Saturday. It didn't feel much different except in the lee of the big headland near the club, which gave some very interesting shifts and holes. We started with the RS300s on a course that had rather a lot of 2-sail reaching (although we both tried to hold the kite on the first of these, which nearly ended in a swim for Peter and Keith).

The same pattern emerged as Saturday, with Jamie and Will, and their extra weight, making up on the beats what they lost downwind. The RS300s initially got away from us, but subtle changes in the angles of the reaches as the race wore on brought them back towards us, and fatigue for the single handers probably started to play a part in the second hour. Peter and Keith slowly extended a decent lead over Jamie and Will and we all started to pick off occasional RS Aeros and RS200s which had been for a swim.

Jamie and Will then had another incident with their rig and called it a day, while Peter and Keith plugged on and left the RS300s behind. The starboard tack 2-sail reach along the bottom of the course was a relentless workout for the helm's right arm (and a constant shower of water in the face) that seemed to go on for hours, although probably only 5 minutes.

By the end of the race it was just broad enough for the RS200s to hold the kite - Peter and Keith tried it but got uncomfortably close to ramming the bank in one of the gusts, pulled it down and were then gleefully overtaken by one while 2-sailing it; however, we blasted past them after the dog-leg when they had to 2-sail it as well. Without seeming to sail past many, Peter and Keith ended up pretty close to the front of the RS200 fleet, and a creditable 17th overall, from something like 100 who started (and 68 who finished).

So, Curtis and Sykes are End of Season Champions with Freeman and Pook as runners-up. A great experience and one that I'll enjoy even more in hindsight when I forget just how cold it was. Thanks to event sponsors Volvo and Magic Marine and to Team Volvo sailors John Pink and Nikki Birrell for sharing in the weekend's fun.

Overall Results: