Harken RS800 End of Seasons Regatta at Rutland Sailing Club

It's not often that you get to race an RS800 in 30 knot gusts, so we should probably consider ourselves lucky to have had the opportunity twice in consecutive events.

The forecast of 22-30 knots each day probably put a few people off going to Rutland for the Harken RS End of Seasons event, including class chairman Dan Goodman (who therefore missed his own surprise 50th birthday party - oops). But for those who made it, the wind gods delivered on the forecasters' promise which made for an exciting weekend of sailing and swimming.

Somehow, despite being Britain's largest man-made lake (allegedly), Rutland is surprisingly narrow. Particularly on Sunday when racing in a Westerly wind up the Southern leg of the lake felt like being on an America's Cup course, with boundaries forcing several tacks and gybes on every leg.

Hugh Shone and Fiona Hampshire - Harken RS800 End of Seasons Regatta - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

The fleet was rather starkly divided into those who'd had a good bit of breezy practice through the Nationals and then the Inlands, and a few brave / innocent new faces who were trying out RS800 racing (or even trapezing) for the first time. Regardless of prior experience we all had fun, all capsized and as far as we know, no RS800s or their sailors were harmed in the making of this event, thanks in no small part to the race team's wise decision not to run a third race on Saturday. On Saturday night the whole RS800 fleet had a very convivial evening in the bar, re-living the joys of choosing which pair of inverted RS400s to gybe between.

National champions Tom Morris and Guy Fillmore once again showed us how windy weather skiff sailing should be done, leading at every mark rounding of every race bar one. For the first time in their RS800 sailing careers they were eligible for the traditional Endeavour prize for the last placed boat to finish all the races, despite also winning them all. Their other claim to fame for the weekend was leading the way after the first race on Saturday to what became known as "Serenity Bay", a small patch of apparently flat calm water in the lee of the clump of trees on Rutland's big headland.

Harken RS800 End of Seasons Regatta - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

More and more boats were tempted to join them, drawn like moths to a flame as we saw G&T drifting about in sunshine and no wind, while the rest of the lake was a maelstrom of whitecaps and upturned hulls. Only when we got to the bay did we discover that vertical tornado gusts of monumental intensity would indiscriminately flatten three or four boats at a time while leaving others only a boat-length away unscathed, their crews laughing at the fate of their neighbours before they too got nailed.

When the racing resumed it became apparent that Hugh Shone and Fiona Hampshire were by a good margin the best of the rest of us, counting straight second places through the weekend and demonstrating a remarkable ability to stay dry while all around were upside down - helped by their prudence in keeping the kite in the bag when the gusts had wiped out everyone behind.

Harken RS800 End of Seasons Regatta - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

The finishing order behind them largely depended on how many races each team managed to complete: Luke and Emma McEwen (four finishes), Cameron and Darrol Moss (two finishes) and Fred Lord and Louise Gale (one finish). Thank you very much to Rutland SC for running such great racing. Thank you to Harken for sponsoring the event. We look forward to returning to battle it out again at the 2022 RS800 End of Seasons Regatta 5-6 Nov 2022.

Overall Results:

The End of Seasons was, of course, the final event in the Rooster National Tour for all RS classes present with the top placed sailors taking home Rooster vouchers (thank you Rooster). Our wonderful RS Class Association Secretary Clare Sargent broke her own impressive record in giving out about fifty thousand prizes in half an hour or so.

For the RS800s this event was the decider for the overall series winner: Tom and Guy equalled Luke and Emma's event tally of 1,1,2 to count, so won the tie break as winners of the last event. Congratulations to Tom and Guy for such an impressive end to the 2021 season, and to all the RS800 sailors who made it onto the water this weekend. We had 32 boats and 71 sailors on this year's tour. Let's try to get even more in 2022!

Harken RS800 End of Seasons Regatta - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Rooster RS800 National Tour Results: