RS200 Winter Championships at Bristol Corinthian Yacht Club

This weekend saw the RS200 Winter Championships at Bristol Corinthian Yacht Club. A cold, south westerly wind greeted the sailors on Saturday morning, with the excellent bacon butties and tea on offer in the clubhouse providing a welcome respite to the cold rigging conditions!

The first race got under way in around 15 knots – the wind proved to be very gusty and shifty. After an even-looking start, James and Will Rusden worked the shifts to lead round the windward mark. They were closely followed by the pairings of Neil Barrett and Sophie Jones and Nick and Juliet Charles. Despite briefly swapping positions on the next few legs, the Rusdens retook first place to lead to the finish. Barrett/Jones finished second whilst Charles/ Charles took third. The forecast was true to form with the wind easing slightly and shifting to a westerly for the start of the second race.

After a small delay whilst the race officer reset the course, the race started with the Rusdens coming off the line strongly and leading again round the windward mark. They were followed by Ally Martin and Bethan Carden, Edd Whitehead and Alice Kingsnorth and John Teague and Naomi Pound. There were plenty of place changes over the following legs, with current national champions Matt Mee and Emma Norris demonstrating their blistering pace to pull through the fleet. On the final downwind, Mee/Norris closed the gap on the Rusdens but not enough to challenge for first place and they had to settle for second. Martin/Carden took third.

In the third race, Charlie Roome and Eddie Glennie did an excellent job to take advantage of the slight port-end bias and cross the fleet coming off the start. They led round the windward, with a pack of boats fiercely battling it out behind. On the downwind, Mee /Norris pulled through to second with the Rusdens in third. Roome/Glennie sailed very well for the rest of the race, comfortably taking first, followed by Mee/Norris and the Rusdens. After the first day, the Rusdens led overnight from Mee/Norris in second and the Charles' in third.

Sunday morning was windier than Saturday with big gusts and shifts – the shifts wreaked havoc in the poor race officer's attempts to lay the course! Charles/Charles made good work of the conditions up the first beat of race four to lead round the windward with Mee/Norris and the Rusdens in pursuit. On the third lap, the Rusdens had taken the lead, only for Mee/Norris to storm back past on the next downwind. These positions were unchanged to the finish.

The wind was gusting over 25 knots by start of the second race. Ian Martin and Charlotte Dobson led round the windward mark, closely followed by Mee/Norris. The gusts caught several teams out downwind with plenty of swimming! Meanwhile, Mee/Norris had overtaken Martin/Dobson and went on to build a commanding lead to the finish. Martin/Dobson took second and Charles/Charles third across the line.

Going into the final race, Mee/Norris led the Rusdens by one point overall meaning whichever team beat the other in the final race would win the event. It proved to be a race of yo-yoing positions with lots of excitement. Martin/Dobson and the Charles' were the leading boats at the first mark, followed by Teague/Pound, Mee/Norris and Rusden/Rusden. After a poor first downwind the Rusdens looked to be well out of contention but battled back to lead at the final windward with Mee/Norris in fourth. This soon changed down the final run though, with Mee/Norris gybing out at the top mark and hitting a band of breeze which they took down the entire run. This enabled them to take the lead and with it the event. They were followed across the line by Martin/Dobson and Teague/Pound.

Therefore, Mee/Norris won overall with an excellent three bullets on Sunday. The Rusdens were close behind in second overall whilst the Charles' took third place. Roome and Glennie were top of the silver fleet and Sarah and David Green were first in the bronze fleet. Many thanks to the team at BCYC for a great event.

Overall Results: