RS700 Winter Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

by Hamish Griffiths 14 Mar 2012 10:26 GMT 10-11 March 2012

A small, but perfectly formed, fleet met this weekend at Grafham for the RS700 2012 Winter Championship. It's a shame that there weren't more boats on Saturday because conditions were almost perfect and the day would have done justice to May. Sunday would have done justice to July but conditions weren't nearly perfect; no wind.

The first race on Saturday got away right on time which is more than can be said for Ian Nolan who must have still been in East Anglia as the first boats were launching. He still managed to make the start (just!) - does he trail his boat with the mast up? Andy Holland and Colin "Steady" Dacey had a right ding dong all the way to the finish with local boy Colin shading it on the race home.

The weekend was characterised by tight jousting and, on Saturday, rustiness after a Winter "off games" for the competitors; most took a few plunges. The wind was better than forecast, 10-15kt with cheeky gusts here and there to make it more interesting. Andy showed good speed on all points but engineered a steady series of capsizes. Ian "took advantage" of your correspondent to nip through for third. (I fell over a few times, right)?

Unfortunately, all is revealed in the GPS tracks.

Colin, showing a bit of local knowledge, tacked off early to lead to the finish in race 2 with Andy in his slipsteam every step of the way. Hamish Griffiths had an uncharacteristically good start in the next and followed up with a storming beat ending neck and neck with Andy at the spreader mark. The wind had picked up so the 500m one-sail reach to the windward mark was interesting and Hamish's pitchpole at the "bear away" was awarded 9 points for grace and artistry. Andy had stopped capsizing by now so took the win with Ian, who had now got his sailing trousers on, just behind.

Race 4 was a two horse affair. Hamish had snapped something in the previous race (he initially feared it was internal but luckily it was just the main halyard) and Andy had performed macrame with his spinnaker. Ian took a leaf out of the local boy's book, tacked off early and led all the way home.

Sunday was as nice a March day as you'll see. The start of race 5 seemed promising but before the first mark boats were drifting hither and thither and Ian won the hour long 2 lapper. It took longer to get back to shore though!

Ian, Andy and Colin all ended on 7 points. A good win in the last race saw Ian Nolan crowned 2012 RS700 Champion.

Many thanks to Grafham Water Sailing Club for a very well organised weekend, and to Simon Cray (PRO) for excellent race management.

By the way, "The George" in Buckden is a great place to stay if you fancy treating yourself.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	Pts
1st	993	Ian Nolan	Snettisham Beach SC	3	3	2	1	1	7
2nd	758	Colin Dacey	Grafham Water SC	1	1	3	2	3	7
3rd	906	Andy Holland	Hunstanton SC	2	2	1	DNC	2	7
4th	1013	Hamish Griffiths	Queen Mary SC	4	4	DNC	DNC	4	17