RS200 Nationals at East Lothian Yacht Club - Overall

RS200 nationals at East Lothian day 5 © Alan Henderson / www.fotoboat.com

David and Jane Hivey have won the RS200 Nationals in North Berwick from Robbie Burns/Vic Simpson with Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback rounding off the top three.

The competitors arrived early for the final days racing with a early start time of 11am planned. Unfortunately the wind was absent and the fleet was held ashore waiting for wind. At midday, an unexpected 12 knots arrived and the competitors launched for the last time.

The first race got away after one recall when a 30 degree shift made the first attempted gate start unfair. The leaders at the windward mark came from the right where there was less tide. Amongst these were Hamish Walker/Emma Clarke and Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback. An interesting point for the event was that The Hivey’s (Sailingtogs) and Robbie Burns/Vic Simpson had gone left rounding the windward mark well down. Unfortunately for Robbie he discovered that taking 2 or 3 attempts to get around the windward mark is not fast and he slipped even further down the field where as Sailingtogs soaked low under the bunch and managed to round the leeward mark in fifth. By the finish Hamish/Emma won comfortably from Ben/Matt with Andy McKeown/Ben Wilcox sailing brilliantly to hold onto third place. Right at the final mark Sailingtogs managed to squeeze inside Wayne/Deb Fletcher to snatch fourth. This meant that if only one more race was sailed the even was already won. However with three races scheduled they had to sail again.

What did turn out to be the final race was sailed in similar conditions to the first. Again the leaders came from the right of the course. James Peters/Alan Roberts lead comfortably at the windward mark and extended to win by a good distance after the shortened two laps. In the bar later that night Ian Pickard was heard saying how he tacked onto a header to get away from Robbie and Dave who were fighting for the championship. He definitely didn’t want to get tangled in that one! Down the last run Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback, Steve Dunn/Sheena Craig and Sailingtogs were having a great battle for second, changing places constantly as they surfed the waves. At the bottom Steve rounded second but Ben just managed to squeeze under him heading into the finish. Sailingtogs lost the battle on the run but the 4th place secured the National Championships. Robbie Burns/Victoria Simpson sailed a great week to take second with Ben Saxton/Matt Rainback moving up to third by winning the day. The biggest jump on the last day had to be Hamish Walker sailing with Emma Clarke who swapped a 53rd for a 1st to halve their points and jump up to fifth overall.

The silver fleet title was taken comfortably by Dave Royse/Nikki Russell finishing in 15th overall. The bronze prize went to Chloe/Daniel Martin.

North Berwick put on an excellent event and the race officer did a sterling job in particularly tricky conditions. It was certainly one of the trickiest Nationals most of the competitors had sailed in. The food and drink on the last night was excellent! 80 boats travelled to Scotland for this event & 68 boats travelled to Garda last month no doubt we will have a huge turnout next year at Weymouth for the RS Games when all the RS classes join forces for a multi- nationals/europeans event.

Overall Results: