RS300 Noble Marine Allen National Championship at Dovey Yacht Club - Overall

Day four started at 00:01 prompt with live music, seriously dodgy dancing and copious amounts of rum supped from a hastily bodged Boom of Doom.

Dave Acres, Luke South, Cheryl Wood and Harry McVicar led the charge early on, busting some arm waving moves that still never really graduated above dad dancing. Sam Davy, Ben Green, and Paul Watson also ran but struggled to keep pace with the fervent alcohol consumption. The first shock came when South's campaign was hampered by inebriated judgement as he faltered mid stint and crashed into the referee (the rather excellent singer, Chris Pomeroy). That left McVicar to hold on to take an early lead with the dodgiest drunken singing. When the time came to end the music round, focus shifted to the main waterborne event of the weekend - the Dovey Diving Championships. The only competitor in this round was McVicar, ably assisted (monitored for safety reasons) by Ben Green of Lymington Town SC. The crowd were itching in their sleep to see if Harry could finally achieve a forward two and a half somersaults, one twist in the pike position. Despite some final words of encouragement from Green, probably along the lines of "don't mix deep water and alcohol", Harry could only muster a backflip which the local seagull judging panel generously awarded a 9, 9, 9, 9.

RS300 Noble Marine Allen Nationals at Dovey Day 4 - photo © Mary Fletcher / Lens2Print

Having taken a clear win in the early morning activities, Harry had two challenges to overcome when the sun rose; a grim-faced hangover and a one point deficit to national championship leader Richard Hanby who had been sailing superbly all week. The event was now a two-horse race and the day's forecast was limited to a narrow racing window before the wind shut off and flipped 180 degrees. At 1055hrs on the dot the start sequence began for race nine of the championship. 8 knots of wind blew from the East with the ebbing tide. The line was incredibly busy at the starboard end which left Paul Watson and Peter Mackin room to own the pin end. Mackin won the pin and was jubilant in the clean breeze with Watson a few boat lengths to windward. It wasn't to last however as the 19 other boats had caused a general recall at the other end - bugger.

Attempt number two was a clean start thanks to the black flag. The fleet split across the beat; but both McVicar and Hanby elected for the left-middle of the course. The top mark was very busy as the far left-hand side had pulled well and caused an almost simultaneous rounding for the fleet. Having rounded somewhere around 15th it was difficult for yours truly to see who was leading, but rest assured McVicar, Hanby, Acres, Watson, Liam Willis and South were all in the mix.

RS300 Noble Marine Allen Nationals at Dovey Day 4 - photo © Mary Fletcher / Lens2Print

Skip forward to the downwind leg and the fleet was compressed again by some pressure pushing down the run. The same leading pack stayed close but it was McVicar who got to the bottom mark ahead of a gaggle of boats which didn't include Hanby. Richard had some work to do. Hanby tacked towards the left side of the second beat, having rounded behind Acres and Mackin. His astonishing upwind pace was enough to cruise up to third place by the time he arrived at the top mark. The breeze was already dying and with it the prospects of a 10th race. But with the two title contenders separated by a few boat lengths the championship was still alive.

The run yielded no improvement for Hanby who had it all to do on the final reach. The breeze now dying completely to a barely sailable level, and Hanby and McVicar were pushing hard to extract every bit of speed available. Hanby overhauled South and rounded mark four a boat length or so behind Harry. A short 20m beat stood between Harry and his first RS300 National Championship win. Harry went right, Richard tacked left and accelerated upwind which surely worried Harry. A confident tack from the Draycote boat was enough to seal the race win and leave Richard longing for a final bite of the cherry.

RS300 Noble Marine Allen Nationals at Dovey Day 4 - photo © Mary Fletcher / Lens2Print

The water turned to glass, with only vague and inconsistent pockets of breeze in parts of the race area. Eventually, abandonment was signalled and boats were towed home. The closest fought championship for some time was brought to an end and a new champion was crowned - he'd been trying long enough, 10 times to be exact!

Dovey YC were excellent hosts, dealing with an incredibly challenging set of conditions to run racing. Getting a series of nine races in can be considered nothing short of miraculous over four days where several other events were cancelled well in advance across the country. A huge thank you to the host club and the brilliant team at the RS Class Association for ensuring all competitors had a brilliant time on and off the water. Our sponsors Noble Marine, Allen and Rooster have all looked after the RS300 fleet for several years and we thank them for making yet another championship a resounding success. See the full list of winners of the generous prizes below:

• RS300 National Champion 2023, Winner of the Clive Everest Cup (day one), Winner of Hyde Sails Cup (day four) - Harry McVicar, Draycote Water SC (15 pts)
• 2nd Overall, Winner of Speed Sails Trophy (day three), Winner of Lightweight Category, Winner of Apprentice Category (attending 1st nationals) - Richard Hanby, Beaver SC (15 pts)
• 3rd Overall, Winner of RMW Marine Master's Cup - Dave Acres, Emsworth SC (29 pts)
• 4th Overall, Winner of the Lionel Boats Youth trophy - Liam Willis, Lymington Town SC (35 pts)
• 5th Overall, Winner of the Southern Sailboats Salver (day two) - Steve Sallis, Hykeham SC (36 pts)
• The Top Club - Emsworth SC
• Winner of the Heavyweight Category - Paul Watson, Y Felinheli Llanfairfechan SC
• Winner of the A-Rig prize - Mark Henman, South Shields SC
• Winner of the Fidelis Trophy - Peter Mackin, Stokes Bay SC
• Winner of the Endeavour prize - Cheryl Wood, Pennine SC
• Winner of the Wooden Spoon - Luke South, Emsworth SC. Awarded for his aforementioned drunken antics

The RS300 fleet now has a very definite buzz about it. Three more events are to come this year: Stewartby Open 30th Sept-1st Oct, Dalgety Bay Open 7-8th Oct, and the Inlands and RS End of Season Regatta at Rutland Water SC on the 4-5th November. If the racing or even just the onshore antics are enough to pique your interest then get in touch to try our demo boat at any of our events and join in with this exciting and growing class.

Overall Results: