Results / Noble Marine National Championship Brixham YC - 16/09/2026

Congratulations to George Smith, RS100 National Champion 2026!

Photos thanks to Tom Wild and Alice Crick

Tom Wild's gallery here

Alice Crick's Gallery here

Day 1 on Y&Y here

Day 2 on Y&Y here

Day 3 on Y&Y here

Day 4 on Y&Y here

Day 1 Harken Thursday, by Jamie Mawson

It was clear from early in the morning that the first day of the 2026 RS600 Nationals would be a good one, with sunshine, 15-20 knots and relatively flat water.

Returning to the popular venue of Brixham, a healthy fleet of 18 boats rigged up in the shelter of the harbour before heading out.
Race one saw defending champion George Smith take an early lead at the windward mark, followed by Jamie Mawson and Will Russell. Jamie lost out to a big right-hand shift on the next beat, letting Will through along with Neil Cooney, both having picked the correct side.

A huge squall hit on the last run, resulting in capsizes for both George and Will. Neil, who had clearly been paying attention at yesterday's coaching session, took his first Nationals win, followed by Jamie and Richard Bone.

Although the squall passed, Race 2 still had some big bands of wind coming through, along with some noticeable shifts. George led again at mark one, followed again by Jamie and Will. Despite some place changing behind, by the finish it was George, Jamie and Will.

Jamie leads overnight, winning the Harken Thursday voucher and limited edition 'must be won, can't be bought' Harken beanie

After racing, the fleet gathered in the clubhouse for an evening of fish and chips, followed by a very welcome return of Brixham's famous pig racing, with prizes to be won by all, kindly donated by Harken and the other race sponsors.

Day 2, by George Smith

Day 2 dawned with the forecast of slightly less wind from a direction further to the south-west. Unfortunately for some, yesterday’s big day out in Torbay had taken its toll on boats and bodies and there was plenty of splicing and replacing of fittings to start the day. The fleet showed its usual camaraderie offering up spares, advice and even splicing services.

It became immediately apparent, on leaving the safety of the harbour, that we were in for another big day on the water. The fleet planed all the way down to the start area, today located in the south area of the bay. The race officer was good on his word of getting us away on time and the fleet aimed for the slightly favoured pin end for start one. The beats were highlighted by short steep chop but the breeze was more solid and somewhat less shifty. The fleet converged on the windward mark with George Smith leading and Jamie Mawson in hot pursuit followed by Richard Bone and Adam Watson who both did well on the port lay-line. The top reach was a full on, drop to the knot, spray filled affair followed by a run that most approached conservatively given the conditions. The fleet generally minimised manoeuvres as the race went on and the positions stayed fairly well set. George finished first, Jamie just holding off a charging Richard, keeping the top of the scoreboard tight. Adam Watson had his best race so far holding onto 4th and special mention to Will Coles who was back out after rigging issues yesterday in his newly painted ‘rescue’ orange boat.

The second race seemed to be even windier with the fleet again favouring the pin end. Lessons learned from race one meant the racing was even tighter to the windward mark, George again just ahead of Jamie and Richard. The reach was again a full on blast and the run was a question of how hard to push vs safety. Jamie pushed hard out to the right hand side of the run coming in with pressure on a hot angle chasing hard into the leeward mark. Unfortunately somewhere into the race gear failure put pay to his day, allowing Richard through to second. The final reach into the finish made for some spectacular racing with 5 boats pushing for the line. Unfortunately Adam pushed too hard and ended up wiping out in dramatic fashion. James Cowen took third flat out and Neil Cooney, putting together a very solid series was fourth, with Tim Cutsforth fifth.

The third and thankfully final race of the day saw a somewhat diminished fleet due to breakages to both boats and fatigue and attrition to sailors. Will Russel rejoined the fray thanks to an opportunistically borrowed mast and made up for lost time by pushing over the pin end of the line and having to spin round the end. The fleet pushed hard left, likely in part to minimise tacking in the difficult chop. George led around the top with Tim in close pursuit. Will having not benefited from the learnings of the day went hard out to the right and rounded in the pack but pushed hard on the run starting to make up places. There were evidently still gains to make as Will pushed through to second with Tim third and Richard 4th.

The fleet were glad to head back in with 3 races in the bag and welcomed back into the bay by the commodore again up to his neck on the slip way catching boats and the beach team greeting us with our trolleys as well as a welcome drink courtesy of RS sailing.

Tomorrow’s forecast is currently looking fresh to frightening so day three’s report may end up being short!

Day 3, by Will Russell, new Class Chair

Everyone had been looking at the big forecast for Saturday, wondering if we’d get any races in. The race team had seen a potential window in the morning, so the start time was moved an hour earlier.

The fleet launched into the quiet sheltered harbour not knowing what lay outside the harbour walls. It was insane! The wind switched on the minute we got out of the harbour. It was full on with many people questioning their decision to launch. The wind was averaging 20 knots with some big gusts and shifts coming through, due to being closer to the shore to try and manage the sea state.

Going into the race, which turned out to be the only race of the day, the fleet hit the line hard with a capsized boat to avoid. Rounding the first mark was George Smith in the lead, showing us his heavy weather pace again, followed closely by Tim Cutsforth and Richard Bone. The top reach was punchy, being close to the shore, with some nuclear gusts wiping out Rich and allowing Will Russell to squeeze into the top 3. Onto the run, Will was closing in on Tim. Tim decided to tack around rather than gybe, but this meant he now had to wait for Will to come past before he could bear away. Will took this opportunity to gybe and close the gap big time. On the final reach before lap 2, Will was “overlapped” with Tim as they approached mark 4, however Will’s understanding of overlap was not the same as Tim’s as he looked back with  confusion, wondering if the overlap was in the room with us. Will realised his was perhaps optimised and went around the outside.

Both of them spent the rest of the race giving each other a hard time despite the conditions being insane. Will was faster on the reach, but Tim was faster on the beat, risking a few more tacks. On the final run, Will was right on Tim’s transom, so decided to let the controls off more to power up the rig, but this sadly ended in a quick swim. George could relax as he crossed the time, Tim trailing behind and Will to finish once he finished swimming. Jamie wasn’t far off in 4th after a few boat issues set him back on Day 2.

Across the course, there were plenty of boat casualties due to the mental/apocalyptic/insane (the sailors’ words on coming ashore) conditions, so the afternoon was spent with the fleet helping get boats sorted ready for the final day – the way sailors muck in to help each other, loaning parts, tools and time is a real standout feature of the RS600s.

Going into the final day, there is a complete change of pace. There’s a lot less wind, potentially not enough, but we’ll see, with the potential for up to 3 races planned, so it could all change still. With these dramatic changes in conditions, anything could happen!

Day 4, by Will Russell

After a rather windy start to the event (have a read of the earlier reports), we had a completely different tone on the final day with the conditions being light and shifty. At this point, we had only 6 races completed so only one discard was in play. The race officer had discussed the possibility of doing up to 3 so a lot could still change at the top of the results with the second discard coming in, but that’s assuming the wind cooperated. 

Before we look at Day 4, let’s have a recap of the previous 3 days:

• Day 1 was quite windy but champagne sailing for the fleet, other than the odd squall knocking people over.
• Day 2 was further out of the bay with larger waves.
• Day 3 was forecast to be mental and ended up being mental. We only managed one race before it got too much. 

It was a shock to the system for some sailors with an hour earlier start time, with launching at 9am after our lie-ins on the previous days, but they were needed after those big days on the water. Despite it looking unlikely we’d launch, the race officer confirmed there was wind out on the course, so we all got into gear and headed out to the race course. Conditions were light, but we were wiring up wind on the rack, but it was gusty and shifty so it was definitely important to keep your head out of the boat.

Once the race officer got the course set and the wind direction settled, we jumped into sequence. After the fleet being line shy with the big conditions on previous days, everyone was keen to get started, with the individual recall flag going up straight away, followed by abandoning the start as everyone was just a bit too eager and couldn’t contain their excitement. Back into sequence with everyone behaving themselves this time, we got going. The left-hand side was the winning move as well as keeping in the pressure. We saw Will Russell round comfortably in the lead, with Will Colles rounding in 2nd place in his newly refurbished orange boat, with Rich Bone rounding in 3rd. A lot of the fleet was trying to get themselves out of holes before getting onto the run. On the run, it paid to head left and get back towards the same pressure we had on the beat. Rich Bone managed to close up on Will Colles and begin the hunt for 1st place. Going into the second lap, Will Russell was still comfortably ahead but covered Rich Bone to ensure he didn’t get left out in a hole while Rich stayed in the pressure. On the final run, the wind had shifted round where going right was the move, but that didn’t allow Will to relax yet with Rich being right in his view every time he checked what the wind was doing. To Will's relief, there were only 2 laps so he had to just get it through the finish line without doing anything stupid, winning the final race of the event… a trend he’s done 3 times now! Rich Bone took 2nd place to secure his place on the podium and Will Colles got 3rd, his best race result so far.

We stayed out on the water trying to get that 8th race in, which would have introduced the 2nd discard too. However, the wind direction kept swinging 35 degrees until it eventually died, so the fleet was called ashore and the championship was sealed.

Congratulations to George Smith on his 5th RS600 National Championship, showing us his impressive skill in windy conditions and making a good recovery in the final race to 4th to seal the title.

Thank you to our generous sponsors RS Sailing (for the beers), RS Sailing Store and Rooster (for the prizes), as well as Brixham Yacht Club for hosting another fantastic event for us. And of course our title sponsor Noble Marine, for making the event happen!

Prizewinners

Results for all 3 fleets are on the BYC Official Noticeboard here