Crewsaver RS End of Season Championships at Datchet Water

Crewsaver RS End of Season Championships at Datchet © Alex Irwin / www.sportography.tv

Crewsaver RS End of Season Championships at Datchet © Alex Irwin / www.sportography.tv

Datchet Water Sailing Club hosted the first ever RS EOS Champs on November 10/11 with Crewsaver as event sponsors. This was the first time that the RS Feva class was involved in an event with all the other adult RS fleets. It proved an excellent showcase as the Feva youngsters were able to see the whole RS stable, with 153 boats from across the RS family joining in. 51 Fevas were joined on a trapezoid course by 35 RS200s; whilst RS100/300/400/500/600/700/800s raced on a second trapezoid course.

Saturday began with the most detailed of briefings from PRO Barry Peters, who was soon to become the voice of the club. And what a club, Barry introduced us to the views of Windsor Castle, the 1.8 mile lake with 87ft of water depth and it's ancestral history as a dodgy night club called Queens, where the bouncer was the inspiration for Vinnie Jones' character in Lock Stock and 2 smoking Barrels. Not your usual briefing by a long chalk.

Course Race Officer, Dave Hazard had the RS100/300/500/600/700 on the first start on an outer loop. The racing was well organised with interesting beats and tactical runs. There was never a one way track round the course, with the shifts providing plenty to think about on the Saturday. With a joint start for 100s, 300s, 500s, 600 and 700 there were added challenges. The 800s were 2nd start on an inner loop, but the very light breezes meant that the front 400s glided past many of the 800s.

Andy Bull was CRO for the RS200 & Feva course. Conditions were made extremely challenging as the committee boat was restricted to a fixed mooring which resulted in lack of space whenever the wind swung right. The team managed to tweak the course for the second race & the 200s were sent off whilst the Feva's were still plodding around the long course. The light conditions proved very difficult for the Feva back markers but the CRO took the opportunity to finish some at the top or bottom of the inner loop.

The 200s got three races in, but the Fevas only two on the Saturday, one of which was a marathon lasting over an hour.

The CROs did well to get the races done & dusted before the beautiful sun set. The conditions were described interestingly by one of the RS400 sailors: "idyllic conditions of beautiful crimson sunset behind the oldest castle in the world mixed in with a gentle breeze of 4-5 knots and the dulcet tones of the safety Rib and British Airways' finest Ladies of the Sky every 45 seconds."

The Crewsaver RS End of Season Party was great fun, excellent value, good food and well supported with entertainment of steel drums and guitar before the main band.

On Sunday a thick frost & thin fog covered the area. The campers looked cold but the club provided a great breakfast. At 10am on the dot, the starts got away in bright sunshine and a less shifty 5 knots, which built to 8 knots at times.

All fleets observed a 1 minute silence as a sign of respect for Remembrance Day, with finishing hoots & whistles, plus starting sequences resuming at 11:05.

The Feva winner was decided on the final race with close racing over both days but it was Robbie & Alex King whose consistency paid off to give them a one point lead. Same again for the 200 fleet with Andy Shaw & Pippa Horne taking the title by one point. In the 800s it was Roger Phillips & Will Crocker winning by 2 points whilst Nick Craig & Toby Lewis cleaned up with six wins in the 400 fleet.

The multi fleet start saw Giles Peckham win the 100s; Harry McVicar managed a clean sweep to win the 300s; Peter & James Curtis win the 500s (again with a string of firsts); whilst Seb Hansell & Alex Young were the only 600s & 700s.

The sun shone all day long & with 3 races for all, the sailors returned to shore pretty happy with November racing.

The Feva report and results can be seen here.

RS100 Results:

RS200 Results:

RS300 Results:

RS400 Results:

RS500 Results:

RS800 Results: