RS200 Winter Warm Up at Grafham Water Sailing Club

by RS200 Class Association 28 Mar 2014 06:46 GMT 8-9 March 2014

Grafham Water Sailing Club hosted the RS200 Winter Warm up event on the 8th and 9th of March. This was the first Grand Prix meeting of the year for the 200's with fantastic conditions, a high quality fleet and intense racing all weekend.

Sailors arrived to a sunny, warm Grafham with a building Southerly breeze with some white horses visible on the far shore. The stage was set for a battle between the current national champions, Matt Mee & Emma Norris and Ben Saxton 2012 national champion sailing with Tim Goodhugh. The fleet also welcomed back seasoned RS200 campaigner Nick Charles sailing with his wife Juliet who have been seen at Burghfield and Itchenor over the winter.

Saturdays racing was intense! Matt & Emma took race one, followed by Ben & Tim with the ever improving Dave Jessop sailing with Clare Michelmore in his new ship in 3rd. The next two races were dominated by Ben & Tim with the breeze up at around 20knots at times. Nick & Juliet sailed an excellent third race to earn a well-deserved 2nd to round of a consistent day. In the bronze fleet Izzy Allerston & Rob Henderson got themselves a notable 7th in the last race beating many of the Gold fleet sailors in the process.

Sundays turned out to be a little lighter but the fleet still spent a lot of the time up on the plane downwind but with bigger gains from choosing to soak at the right time. Ben & Tim picked up where they left off taking the first race with Edd Whitehead sailing with stand in crew Ian Mairs picking up his best result of the weekend in his new boat with a 2nd place having led early on. Race 5 saw Matt & Emma take a convincing win from the fleet but Ben & Tim finished off the event with another bullet in race 6.

Overall Ben & Tim took a convincing win, Ben showing why he is ranked No 1 in the world in the Nacra 17 and in pole position to represent at Rio 2016. The silver fleet was won by Neil Barrett & Sophie Jones and Izzy & Rob continued their good form to take the bronze fleet.

Overall Results:

Pos	Sail No	Division	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1st	1328	Gold	Ben Saxton	Tom Goodhugh	GWSC	‑2	1	1	1	2	1	6
2nd	1311	Gold	Matt Mee	Emma Norris	Hollingworth Lake SC	1	2	3	‑6	1	3	10
3rd	1458	Gold	Nicholas Charles	Juliet Charles	Littleton SC	4	4	2	‑5	3	2	15
4th	1350	Gold	Ben Palmer	Lucy Preston	HISC	‑5	3	4	4	4	5	20
5th	1347	Gold	David Jessop	Clare Michelmore	Papercourt SC	3	‑10	5	3	5	6	22
6th	1562	Gold	Edd Whitehead	Ian Mairs	Parkstone YC	6	7	‑8	2	6	8	29
7th	1325	Gold	Charlotte Savage	Mike Wood	Lancing SC	9	5	6	8	‑12	4	32
8th	1495	Gold	Tim Ellis	Clare Whitehill		10	‑11	9	7	7	10	43
9th	1389	Gold	Paul Lewis	Rosie Brearley	Locks SC	7	9	13	9	‑16	9	47
10th	1030	Bronze	Izzy Allerston	Rob Henderson	Salcombe YC	13	‑16	7	13	9	7	49
11th	975	Bronze	Pete Nelson	Nic Holden	Northampton SC	‑16	12	10	16	8	11	57
12th	1173	Bronze	Chris Larr	Abigail Larr	Northampton SC	11	‑19	14	10	11	15	61
13th	1072	Silver	Neil Barrett	Sophie Jones	Roundhill SC	8	6	11	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	67
14th	1192	Bronze	Cameron Davis	Zoe Davis	HISC	15	15	‑18	12	13	14	69
15th	1517	Silver	Mark Hatsell	Rob Ashman		12	8	12	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	74
16th	1125	Bronze	Hannah Holbourn	Jonathan Frary	Mountbatten Centre	14	13	(DNC)	17	17	13	74
17th	465	Silver	Orken Soyer	Ismail Inan	Exe SC	(DNC)	DNC	16	14	15	12	78
18th	1126	Bronze	David Conlon	Sarah Bines	Brightlingsea SC	(DNF)	17	DNC	11	10	DNC	80
19th	584	Bronze	Tim Freeman	Hannah Sands	Warsash SC	17	‑18	17	18	14	16	82
20th	972	Silver	Tom Taylor	Sophie Hill	Wembley SC	(DNF)	14	15	15	DNF	DNC	86