Results / Inland Championships Grafham Water SC - 01/10/2005

Stupendous entry for GUL RS200 Inland Nationals at Grafham Water SC. The Gul RS200 Inland Nationals attracted the amazing and at times scary entry of 110 boats at Grafham Water SC on Oct 1/2; yes for the hard of hearing that was 110 boats. The weather also came to Grafham with a fair bit of sunshine and blue skies along with some very decent winds. Sharing Grafham with courses for other RS classes meant that race officer Neil Cooney could not set beats as long as he would have liked for the numbers but this added to the sense of occasion. A change of wind direction on Sunday made life easier for the PRO allowing for longer legs and start lines. Saturday and after getting over the shock of racing against so many boats the fleet got away in race 1 at the fourth time of asking in a force 4 with many leading contenders already with a black flag in the bag. Four times RS400 GUL National Champion Roger Gilbert, with current RS200 GUL National Champion crew Fiona Clark, led for much of the race but lost out to Fat Face RS200 Circuit winners Lee Sydenham/Anne Vaudrey. Geoff Carveth/Loopy Lucy were third and Marshall King/Heather Craig fourth. Gilbert/Clark looked in ominous form though winning race 2 from the Harken teams of Jon Lewis/Katy Nicholl and Mark Littlejohn/Emma Clark with Sydenham/Vaudrey fourth. During race 3 the wind went hard right but this did not stop Tom and Jo Hewitson, winner of the four previous Gul RS200 Inlands, who scored a convincing win from David Giles/Jane Willian, the consistent Carveth/Loopy and Ian Pickard/Dottie Cormack. Star turns of the day had been Sam Littlejohn/Millie Parsons thrashing his dad in fifth place overall and Fiona/Steven Hall in 12th in their first RS200 event. Sunday and the sun was still there, as was the force 4 but now from the northwest; although this slowly dropped throughout the day. This allowed PRO Cooney to set a longer beat at an angle across the lake with the start line only 50m off the clubhouse which gave immense pleasure to spectators and Grafham members rigging their boats. Even with the start line right on the shore and the start delayed a few minutes many had the �Paul Goodwin cuddle up to my warm crew in the tent� disease and were still rigging when the start gun went. Even more bizarrely there were plenty of boats still checking wind shifts at the windward mark when the five minute went. Of course the one thing you prey for in such circumstances is a general recall but the fleet was in good order as the pin end was heavily favoured. The Hewitsons liked the extra space and led throughout, Sydenham/Vaudrey were second, Carveth/Loopy again third and John Greenland/Pippa Williams fourth. Pin end was the place to be and hit the port lay line in race 5. Carveth/Loopy led throughout ahead of Littlejohn senior/Mad Welsh Emma, both surviving a very strange flat patch on beat 3, with Giles/Willian third and Lewis/Nichol fourth. The win, coupled with a horror race for the Hewitsons virtually gave Carveth/Matthews overall victory but every other place was up for grabs with Lewis/Nichol the only other boat to have five top ten results. Gilbert/Clark led race 6 at the first mark just ahead of Pete Vincent/Tessa Nicholl. Vincent/Nicholl gybed early into a convincing lead,� just as it looked as if they were going to crown a very consistent set of results and give the fleet immense earache it went wrong on the third beat. Lewis/Nichol and the Hewitsons cheated by going hard right and popped into 1.2. Lewis was the only boat to score six top ten results, a reflection on the depth of the fleet and deserved third overall. Sydenham/Vaudrey�s third in the final race gave them second overall but Carveth/Loopy Matthews 20th was of no consequence as they won by three points overall. Three races were held on Sunday with no general recalls which was superb work by the race team. Matt and Emma Jenkins in a 9 year old boat finished 11th overall and won the silver division. Colin Smith crewed by 12 year old son Aaron were second silver boat just ahead of Beavers Martin Penty/Jeremy Collins. Its not only Roger that has the sailing skills in the Gilbert family as sister Katrina proved by winning the bronze division crewed by Jenny Rust; just ahead of Datchets Nick and Claire Haylett. Many thanks to Grafham for yet again being excellent hosts. Even bigger thanks to Gul and Fat Face for their continued support. The 200�s rounded of a fantastic year with a record turnout for the Inlands. The RS200�s have now had the two biggest fleets in two man non junior classes this year. 110 boats at an inland venue on one start line on one course was too crowded; there were too many general recalls on Saturday, if you were not very front row on the starts you were in trouble, the approaches to the first windward mark were interesting and even with a leeward gate there were far too many pile ups. The RS200 Committee will be changing the format for how the Inlands are organised next year but boy if having so many boats wanting to race in your class is a problem then it is a lovely problem to have! Pete Vincent.