What a year for the RS600 class

by Lee Bratley 6 Nov 2017 06:56 GMT 6 November 2017

2017 has been a fantastic year for the RS600's as our resurgence really kicked into gear, resulting in a season that - not so long ago - we could only dream of.

A series of events at Bough Beech, POSH, Filey, Marconi and Grafham saw travelling 600's for the first time in a few years and, with fantastic support at each weekend, it was obvious that the desire was there amongst the owners of these spectacular dinghies to get out there racing and socialising together.

Highlight of the year was a 26 strong fleet at the Inland Champs held at Grafham, which made for a great sight out on the water - and out in the pub - throughout the weekend. A fantastic culmination of the work and perseverance that our new committee had been putting in since the middle of the previous year.

They say that success breeds success and this proved correct during 2017 as, bit by bit, we made more and more progress towards reasserting the class as a place to be for your adrenaline-fuelled performance sailing.

Firstly, the class worked closely with both the Boatyard at Beer and Hyde to develop a new sail for the boat in order to ensure continued availability and supply of these key items. With several pre orders placed, both Boatyard and Hyde supplied the new sails in fantastic time to a group of very happy helms. The new sail is available to order via the Boatyard at Beer right now.

The Boatyard have been fantastic supporters of our ideas and, as our official builder, have stocks of all the parts you'll need to keep your boat on the water - and there has even been talk of brand-new boats.

The enthusiasm amongst the class was one thing, but it was the support from the sailors themselves that saw RS bring the 600's back under the Class Association collective umbrella - which was fantastic news and one of our major goals achieved.

As well as this, the class resurgence caught the attention of none other than Andy Rice, who wrote a wonderful, full page article about the boat, the class and our hopes and thoughts for the coming months and season. The article appeared in 'Yachts and Yachting' and gained us huge attention - as our Facebook page attested to as more and more people searched us out and joined in.

In fact, our class Facebook page has really come alive and is a fantastic resource for all your 600 needs/questions/banter with plenty of advice on taming these tricky beasts as well as being a resource for the odd spare part.

With all of this attention, though, comes the need for 2nd hand boats. There are a lot of people on the lookout for decent 600s and the close season is a great time to move a boat on, so if you have a 600 that you think you'd like to sell - or know of unloved / unused boats in your local dinghy park then get over to the class facebook page to let us know (Just search RS600 and you'll find us).

As for next year, a calendar of events has just been released and further expands on our idea of gentle growth with a gradually higher profile.

• 12th-13th May: Grafham Water SC (Inland Champs)
• 23rd-24th June: Parkstone (Summer Champs)
• 14th July: Marconi
• 23rd-25th August: Weymouth (Nationals/RS Games at WPNSA)
• 3rd-4th November: Rutland (End of Season Champs)

We will also be encouraging helms to take part in the Lord Birkett Trophy up at Ullswater YC in July as something of a social event for a little bit of midsummer fun (An incredibly fun event so keep your eyes peeled for entries opening)

In addition to all of this, we'll also have our very own standalone stand at the RYA Dinghy show over the weekend of the 3rd and 4th of March, with a boat on display and plenty of sailors to hand to chat with - and perhaps exchange war stories of your learning curve!

So, with a superb 2017 behind us we'd like to thank everyone that has helped us revitalise the class to a level we didn't think we'd reach quite this soon.

To everyone at the RS Class Association, all at the Boatyard at Beer, Allen Sailing for supporting our Inland champs, Andy Rice for a fantastic article and everyone at Hyde sails for the amazing help in developing our all new sail.

We also have to thank everyone at every club we've rocked up to this year. We know that a lot of incredibly hard work and organisation goes on to make sure that we can play out our weekend warrior dreams and we've had nothing but the best time at each venue we've been to during 2017, so thank-you each and every one of you.

Lastly, though, we have to thank all of the sailors themselves who have supported our ideas, given assistance, advice and turned out in strong numbers, travelling to the various events with enthusiasm and smiles throughout the year.

Here's to you all and here's to looking ahead to another superb year for the RS600's in 2018.

It might be early, but we wish all Classes and all Dinghy sailors a very happy Christmas and we hope to see you all out on the water at some point next year.