RS Classes Southern Championships - RS100

Report thanks to David Smart

Hayling greeted the fleet with a mediterranean-esque ambience with blue skies, and blue(ish) seas.  Late entries included National champion Neal Freeman and the surprise appearance of David Smart.  The sea breeze was working well giving a steady 8 to 10 knot breeze over the course.

Race 1

Al Hall was first to the windward mark after Huw Powell had decided that he wanted to be an RS400 and join them on the other course.  Greg Booth showed strong downwind speed to get near the front at the end of the second lap only to decide not to follow everyone else and try to finish one lap early.  That left the way open for Neal Freeman to take the bullet with Mark Harrison in close pursuit and Al Hall taking a hard earned third.  Giles Peckham was closing in on fourth only to have David Smart nip inside at the final mark and beat him to the line by the length of a kite pole.

Race 2

A big starboard bias saw a recall for Huw Powell and Ian Gregory.  Al Hall's watch had stopped but nobody would tell him the time left, so he was left fuming on the second row!  Neal Freeman was first to the windward mark and never looked back, which was a pity as that was where all the action was.   Unfortunately, due to the average age of the fleet, Alzheimer's has set in and nobody can actually remember what happened during the rest of the race.  Except on the finish line David Smart nipped inside Giles Peckham, who had decided to inspect his centreboard down the final run (Giles noting that his valet should apply more polish overnight) to generously let David beat him by the length of a kite pole - again.  That was further back in the fleet with Mark Harrison taking another second with Greg Booth third Huw Powell fourth and Clive Eplett fifth.

Race 3

Al Hall was OCS joined by Ian Gregory showing OCS consistency, but neither realised, compounding Al’s frustrations of race 2.  Neal Freeman did not get everything his own way, with Huw Powell finally getting his act together and showing good boat speed to claim the bullet with Neal second and Greg Booth taking third from David Smart, who just nipped inside Mark Harrison on the finish line this time as Giles had gone sightseeing.  Mike Adams was showing good pace and finished just behind Mark.

Race 4

Sunday dawned with another clear sky promising that thermals would help build the  light southerly during racing.  Race 4 was started in a South Easterly force 2 with Al Hall demonstrating fantastic lighter wind pace and that he is quick in the first race of any day.  He led the whole way to the finish of the two lap race.  He was followed by the ever consistent and fast chasing overnight leader Neal Freeman with Andrew Wilson also demonstrating great pace to take a well earned 3rd place ahead of light air paceman Giles Peckham.  The tussle for the podium looked to be blown wide open with overnight 2nd Huw Powell trailing in 8th, 3rd placed Mark Harrison in 6th with Greg Booth wallowing in 11th.

Race 5

With the thermals starting to take hold and a delay to the start while we waited for the RS800s to restart, the breeze had built to a force 3. Martin Boyd showed everyone how to sail in a growing breeze with shifts to find if you persist.  He led round the windward mark with Neal Freeman in hot pursuit.  The podium chasers were all back in the mix after their malaise of the first race, with Mark Harrison bouncing back to 2nd with Huw Powell 3rd and Greg Booth 4th.  Andrew Wilson continued his rise through the fleet to finish 5th with early race leader Andrew Boyd finishing 6th.

Race 6

While Neal had won the regatta with a race to spare, the next 3 places were up for grabs.  All Mark needed to do was finish 2 places ahead of Huw to take second, although Greg could take second by finishing 4 places ahead of Huw or an unlikely 8 places ahead of Mark.  By now the breeze had filled to around 10 knots so giving full planing conditions downwind and smiles all around.

Unfortunately Mark buckled under the pressure and had to return to the correct side of the start line after the gun.  An expensive mistake. Huw on the other hand revelled in the breeze, and wasn't going to waste his chance. Using all his strength (and a couple of pounds of additional weight), he stretched away to an unassailable lead to win the race and take second spot overall.  Neal continued his consistent ways in finishing second on the water, but Greg didn't quite succeed in overhauling the deficit over Mark, but got closer than he realised in coming 3rd in the race to take a well earned 4th place overall.  Giles Peckham's 4th in the race translated to 5th overall having overhauled a frustrated David Smart who had a miserable day (but not as bad as Clive Eplett or Al Hall, so there was some consolation) never featuring in the mix and tumbling down the leaderboard.  Andrew Wilson's 9th in the last race was enough to get ahead of David overall by virtue of a better discard.

It had been a fantastic 2 days of brilliant sunshine and decent thermal sea breezes.  There was close racing throughout the fleet with the race team getting through the races in super-fast time ensuring champagne sailing on the Costa del Hayling.

RS Classes Southern Championships - RS100

Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd June

Overall

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