Results / Fat Face RS Racing Circuit Eastbourne Sovereign SC - 04/06/2005

RS200 Fat Face Racing Circuit at Eastbourne � really one to remember. After events in Wales and Scotland it was back to the south coast of England for the RS200 Fat Face Circuit at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club on June 4/5. The country may have changed but two things did not change; there was another red hot fleet with twelve of 2004�s Nationals top twenty present and for the third event in a row Saturdays racing was lost to the weather. Eastbourne sea front looked pleasant in the sunshine on Saturday morning but even the non trained eye could tell there was plenty of breeze out in the race areas. With a strong south westerly sneaking round the corner of Beachy Head the race teams were nervous about sending the fleets out. A volunteer team went out in a 200 to test the conditions; everything looked fine going up wind towards the pier but that soon changed when the kite was popped. Even the 800 fleet admitted it looked spectacular! The run lasted approx 90 seconds with a huge wipe out to relieved cheers of all the sailors on the shore. So it was down to serious crazy golf and shopping for the girls in Brighton. Sunday, the breeze was still in the southwest but down around 16-18 knots, with a decent size sea still running so the fleet went for some awesome sailing. The breeze slowly built all day with the final race held in 22 knots. When the tide turned after the first race it was against the breeze. With both the breeze and tide increasing the waves became big for the third and fourth races. Gybe corner was fine but leeward mark was often a mess as boats screaming in on starboard went for spectacular wipeouts trying to gybe. The port gybe was totally with the waves giving amazing rides. Giving the testing conditions and the quality of the fleet Craig Burlton�s and Fiona Clark performance was mighty impressive. In race 1 they passed Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudrey downwind to score a very close win. In race 2 they were again second for a long period but took advantage of a kite hoist problem in Geoff Carveth/Loopy Lucy Matthews boat to win. A second in race 3 was a short term blip; after a bad start in race 4 a drive for the starboard side of the first beat produced handsome dividends and another race win. In their only event before the Nationals Burlton/Clark showed in such a strong fleet that they will be very serious contenders for the title. Eastbourne Sovereign SC had done a great job in organising the event and were such friendly hosts. The race teams and rescue crews impressed everyone and the beach team making launching and recovery such an easy task were fantastic. Regular 200 circuit sailors Andi Riley/Julie Marsden deservedly won the silver division with some good results. Jo Wotton/Nigel Harniman from Wembley won their second bronze division of the season. Overall Trudie Danbury/Karen Baker now holds a narrow lead over fellow Bristol CYC members Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholls. Matt and Emma Jenkins from Sheffield are well clear in the silver division whilst Draycote�s Paul Goodwin/Anna Row reclaim the bronze division. With the sixth Fat Face Circuit of the year at Yorkshire Dales in a fortnights time discards come into play and the overall picture will become really close in all divisions. Pete Vincent