Vago Inland Championships at Rutland Sailing Club

Vago Inlands at Rutland © Jan Carver

Vago Inlands at Rutland © Jan Carver

Vago Inlands at Rutland © Jan Carver

The Vago fleet held their Inland Nationals at Rutland. This always is a popular event as it is well organised and with the other Laser multi-classes it makes for a great atmosphere and a great bit of water to race on.

We were all lead to believe that the weekend was going to be gusty so as the Vago has both the XD and the Standard mainsail we were waiting to see if the wind was going to follow the forecast. In the end we all went for the XD option, which was fortunate as the wind stayed between F2-F3 which led to some very close and tactical racing the fleet on all of the first 3 races the Vagos caught up the Laser 2000 and the fleet finished within about a minute of each other which made the results very close.

We had a long windward leeward course of 2 laps each with the wind favouring the right-hand side of the course but little shifts allowed you to gain some distance where you could. There was a very close battle at the front of the fleet between Dave Baxter and Stephen Carver with Tim Lachlan cope and Ed Deacon finishing almost alongside each other. And the mid fleet changing places all the time throughout the race it was very enjoyable racing.

On Sunday we started off with some tuning - getting people's mast rake angles to 667cm. This was quite interesting seeing how much some boats were out. The weather came in more like the forecast predicted. Though initially light it filled in to F6 with white horses all over the course. We all opted for the XD again but a few of us wished we had reefed halfway through the afternoon but the exhilarating feeling on the kite reaches was fantastic even if we were just holding on by the skin of our teeth. The up turned hulls of Vagos at the gybe points showed just how much fun we were having. Now the double-handers came into their own and watching them fly downwind was fantastic.

Stephen Carver took race 4 with Stuart Harris taking 2nd. The single-handers were back in the main fleet finding they needed to have eaten a much bigger breakfast! Stuart Harris and Fraser Harris then went on to take races 5 & 6, but by this time Stephen had done enough with his 2nd place to take the Inland Nationals title but it was very closely fought for.

Everyone appeared to really enjoy this weekend and we look forward to the start of next year to get together and have some more fun.

Overall Results: