RS700 Racing Circuit at Lymington Town Sailing Club

Racing during the RS Racing Circuit event in Lymington © Andrew Haynes / www.fotoboat.com

Racing during the RS Racing Circuit event in Lymington © Andrew Haynes / www.fotoboat.com

David Gorringe during the RS Racing Circuit event in Lymington © Richard Phillips

The fifth event of the 2009 RS700 Racing Circuit took place over the weekend at Lymington Town Sailing Club over the weekend of the 4th & 5th July. With a first prize of a week’s free accommodation in Spain at www.muciatastic.co.uk interest was high as to who would walk away with the best prizes for ages!

The forecast of 10 knots and sunny showers was pretty overall pretty accurate and the first race started in a F3 and sunshine in an ebbing tide. Jon Heissig and class chairman Ian Nolan went right in the South Westerly breeze and looked good to take the lead at the windward mark, but there was more wind on the left for Dave Gorringe and Colin Dacey to just cross. Heissig got past downwind managing to finish before the 800s had put together a start.

Race two, Heissig went right again which just allowed him to get to the windward mark ahead of Tony Dencher and Brendan Jenner, and held his position through some nifty manouvering around the leeward mark to avoid the fleet of 800s coming off their start.

With the tide turned, the apparent wind dropped to a light breeze and the upwind leg of the final race of the day was a struggle against the tide. Again Jon took the lead at the start and was never really challenged. The race turned into a bit of a lottery depending on who gathered the most weed resulting in a of frustration throughout the fleet.

Saturday saw the traditional meal and disco in the club and even attracted a large hen party to join in the dancing. Very little beer was consumed and everyone went to bed early as these highly tuned athletes saved themselves for the following day's sport.

Sunday dawned with foreboding clouds and a rain shower just to freshen everything up but soon developed into a beautiful day with a stonking F4 over the tide making things very tasty indeed.

In the fourth race Tony Dencher looked a dead cert to take the win as Jon Heissig struggled with the conditions (lack of practise, nothing to do with the beer on Saturday?). However a mainsheet hooked over the corner of the leeward rack saw him unable to bear off enough to round an over stood final windward mark before the tide sluiced him by. This allowed local sailor Dave Gorringe to take the lead and a well deserved race win from Colin Dacey and a recovering Jon Heissig.

Race 5 was an epic 5 lapper which challenged everyone physically. By the 3rd lap it had turned into a 3 way tussle with Tony Dencher leading from Colin Dacey and Ian Nolan enjoying the conditions to the full. First to falter was Colin who had a problem tack and then it was the turn of Tony who managed to drop it on the very last gybe of the race allowing Ian Nolan to take the race win on the maiden event for his new boat.

The final race saw a depleted fleet take to the start line. Jon Heissig recovered to lead from the start and made the gybe to gain a good lead and the event. Tony and Colin had a good race with Tony upright fastest from some impressive capsizes on the run to get second.

Many thanks to LTSC for their hospitality, to the weather gods for finally providing a decent breeze and to Pete Barton from www.Murciatastic.co.uk for providing the best prizes we’ve seen for some time.

The final event of the circuit is at the legendary Hunstanton Sailing Club on the 22/23 August, aiming to keep their crown as the social of the year. Before then the class is running two coaching sessions at Oxford and Hunstanton on the 18th July just in time for the Europeans at Carnac from 27th to the 31st July.

Overall Results: