Dakine RS100 Nationals at Parkstone Yacht Club

Inaugural RS100 nationals at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

Inaugural RS100 nationals at Parkstone © Clare Turnbull / www.fotoboat.com

The weekend of the 4th and 5th of September 2010 saw the inaugural RS100 DAKINE UK National Championship get underway at Parkstone Yacht Club with a surprising 43 entries- not bad for a class that’s only been going for six months!

A free pre-event training session courtesy of RS Sailing followed by a trip to the local fleet’s favoured curry haunt proved a successful confidence boost and nerve settler for many of the travellers. Entries came from as far as afield as Cornwall, Merseyside and the Blackwater, all arriving with the same aims: to pitch their skills and learn some more about these new toys.

Saturday got underway with a steady F3-4. It would be nice to say the Parkstone Team had some local advantage, however with the neaps and a racecourse around their unfamiliar side of Brownsea Island, it was abundantly clear that the only advantage they pressed was some pretty handy core skills and plenty of time on the water racing other RS100s.

The top of the fleet was settling in to some familiar patterns, Hywel Roberts from Parkstone taking the first ever RS100 class event race win in his 8.4 rig. Huw Powell was in hot pursuit finishing second in a 10.2 rig with Neal Freeman taking his only hit outside the top two grabbing an eventually discarded third place. Nick Peters and Clive Eplett fought it out for 4th and 5th respectively, opening up another can of worms on the whole 8.4 / 10.2 debate. Which is quicker on a championship windward / leeward course… it’s yet to be settled. Many of us put this down to Clive’s speed downwind which was simply astounding throughout the training event and day 1.

Further down the fleet there was some noticeable talent coming up through ranks. Simon Childs with dominating pace upwind, guest helmsman Tim Garvin posting an impressive 6th from his first ever ride in a production 100 and David Thomas proving the transition from a Laser sailor to a more than competent RS100 pilot is about 4 days on the water with a bit yoof n’ talent on your side.

Race 2 & 3 followed similar patterns, same names at the top of the list. In race 2 Neal took the win from Nick Peters, Clive drag-racing into 3rd downwind. Fourth and Fifth places ‘stayed local’ with Hywell Roberts and Phil Jackson respectively. Again four 8.4s in the top five, this class is ever-evolving into something very interesting!

Race 3 also saw the return to form of Chris Larr, the former RS Vareo National Champion who was grossly infringed by a port tacker on the first beat of Race 1 leaving him out of the line up for the first two guns of the day. Chris notched up a 3rd in his 10.2 rig, although the slimmed down man owned up to saying it was bit too much like hard work. Another ex-Vareo boy, Mick Church from South Cerney SC got around this course unscathed and posted an impressive 7th – a clear indication that careful, consistent sailing can bring home the chocolates.

Race 4 was the single-point medal race. We saw some guys head on in before the start. It was quite mammoth and no one could really be accused of wimping out. The breeze had steadily built and muscles and back were beginning to wear out. However Neal Freeman smashed through with a win, Mark Harrison in hot pursuit followed by Huw Powell in the first 10.2 rig. 4 and 5th saw a repeat of local form from Hywel and Phil, again both driving the 8.4 rig forward very hard in this heavier air.

Saturday Night was a civilised affair, plenty of wine and steak, but the toils of the 4th race and a forecast of 20-25knots for Sunday meant the semi-inebriated states of many a 100 sailor ‘went sensible’ and chicken-tacked out the way of Demo Dave’s ‘after hours’ suggestions and we got an earlyish night. Sunday came and Sunday blew. Autumn had arrived. So too had Jon Gorringe our reassuringly efficient PRO who made it quite clear the show would go on and it wasn’t going to be a late start. Extra layers went on, Aquapacs were stashed-up with calories and the depleted brave rolled out down the slipway. Demo Dave showed me how to sail the boat properly downwind on the way to the startline… bloody hell, it was so, so quick. That was definitely the one time of the weekend when some batteries in my GPS could have been handy!

Race 5 went off without a hitch. Chris Larr had special dispensation to switch rigs down 8.4 (it was a learning experience event for all, including the RS Team) His end result was a 7th and he also claimed it was a lot easier upwind. Mark Harrison took the bullet, Neal Freeman pulling in the second and Phil Jackson getting himself into the medals with some seamless downwind work. Demo Dave was beginning to pick himself out of the pack- pushing a great result of 5th into the mix.

The wind was big now, probably 25 knots in the gusts, so it really was a survival race down the rest of fleet. Some gear failure took out notable contenders for the rest of the event- Nick Peters with the clump knot from hell in his kite tidies and David Thomas with a loose centreboard. Others went in for fear of gear failure and mental torture. Clive Eplett clearly very keen to have a cuppa tea rather than put up with ‘much more of that’ and Chris Jones, who looked like he’d gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson headed in for respite.

The war of attrition continued through in to Race 6, Huw Powell bouncing back into the top 2 closely pursued by Hywel Roberts. Chris Larr and Phil Jackson fought it out in the 8.4s for the 4 and 5th place. Chris Cunningham and Simon Bennett were playing the Pied Piper role, leading the snake trail of capsizing lemmings one by one down the runs. It was becoming abundantly clear that there were fewer boats out, meaning these results would really count if you could muster the energy, enthusiasm and/or shear bloody-mindedness to finish the races.

Race 7 was a re-run at the top, with a quick switch in leader- Huw claiming the win over Neal. In third place Chris Cunningham showed some late promise to be in serious contention next season, although he claims it was simply that he pulled his outhaul on. Hywel Roberts took 4th with Chris Larr back on the money in 5th. Greg Booth pulled himself up the rankings with an impressive 6th place, with Mark Harrison closely behind him; again two very fast men in 8.4 rigs who are going to be people to watch on next year’s circuit.

Race 8 was the killer- the longer, non-discardable marathon with the now infamous downwind gate to contend with. Was it hard work or what? But some of those downwind sections were simply mind blowing. If you could summarise RS100 sailing in one leg from one race, it was the first downwind of that race.

The wind was full-on by now, even the bearaways were becoming ‘set pieces’ of boat handing rather than run-of-the-mill mark roundings. Boats capsized everywhere, but everyone kept fighting to right them and get the kite back out the chute as quickly as possible. The fleet separation was immense, I can only imagine how sweet it was for Neal to have that lead, but the second to fifth places looked like they were swapping all over the shop, even local legend Phil Jackson took the odd tumble which proved costly on the Parkstone clean sweep of the overall 8.4 category medals. Never mind Phil, you’ve always got next year when you can focus on the sailing rather than the running of such an awesome event!

The finishing top 5 overall positions were Neal Freeman (8.4), Huw Powell (10.2), Hywel Roberts (8.4) Mark Harrison (8.4) and Phil Jackson (8.4). Second in the 10.2 category was Chris Cunningham (8th overall) and third place went to Andrew Beynon (10th overall).

A final thank you must go to Parkstone YC, especially Phil Jackson for overall event coordination and to Jon Gorridge for some exceptional race management. Finally Dakine, many thanks for your generous sponsorship of the event, we hope you will support us again.

Overall Results: