RS200 Southern Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club

RS200 Southern Championships at Hayling Island © Richard Janulewicz / www.fotoboat.co

Hayling Island Sailing Club served up a cracker for the RS200 Southern Area Championships over the last weekend. Tom Morris and Emma Porteous won the event that many consider the ideal warm up for the Hayling Nationals in August - think Andy Murray winning Queens before Wimbledon last year.

Day 1 dawned hot and light and whilst the (very brief and prompt) briefing was happening in the bar, a 6 to 8 knot sea breeze filled in and the fleets headed out. Our very punctual race officer caught out a few boats who'd underestimated the sail out to the bay but race 1 got off without a general recall in sight... what a nice change (unfortunately for some).

Tom Morris and Emma Porteous won the first race comfortably taking advantage of the line bias, leading at the windward mark, and promptly charging off down the first reach with their nice new pink kite working well. Edd Whitehead and Alice Kingsnorth were closing the gap in second and Andy Shaw and Pippa Horne in third.

The second race saw a 10 degree left shift up the first beat taken advantage of by James Rusden and Will Rusden who led at the windward mark closely followed by Ben Palmer and Lucy Preston. Ben and Lucy just pipped James and Will to take line honours with Andy and Pippa coming in third.

In the third race, Edd and Alice showed how to string a number of shifts together to lead at the windward mark, and just managed to hold off a charging Dicken Maclean and Hannah Young on the last run to win, with Tom and Emma in third.

Overnight saw Edd and Alice leading joint on points with Tom and Emma. Then, as we do best, the fleet then headed straight to bar to enjoy the sun set on the Summer Solstice. Evening antics included a live band and a flowing bar...

The second day appeared hot and windless, but a south easterly breeze filled in early resulting in sailing starting on time. The sailors used the gentle sail out to nurse a few sore heads. The sore heads, however, didn't stop enthusiasm on the start line with tide underneath the fleet and a black flag general recall saw a few naughty boats sneak off to enjoy the sun (including the class chairman – ahem!). James and Will lead from the start having won the pin end, Tom and Emma were second with Ben and Lucy third.

Dicken (with a change in crew - guest star Marianthe Evangelidis filling in for birthday girl Hannah Young), showed how to recover from a black flag, going big, winning the mid line, and dominating with a win. Ben and Lucy pipped Tom and Emma to second on the last mark who then finished in third.

Going into the last race the victory was in Tom and Emma's grasp, with Ben and Lucy in with an outside chance. A left shift up the beat brought a lead round the windward mark from David Jessop and Clare Michelmore who went on to win. Andy and Pippa came second, James and Will in third. Tom & Emma won the weekend, James & Will in second and Ben & Lucy in third, Edd & Alice 4th, Andy & Pippa 5th, Dicken & Hannah/M 6th and Steve and Katie Restall 7th.

The fleet headed off comparing tan (burn) lines looking forward to more at the Nationals and what should be a lovely day at Parkstone on the 28th June. See you all there!

Overall Results: