Gul RS Vareo Inland Championships at Waveney & Oulton Broad YC
by Nick Crickmore 29 Jul 2014 10:07 BST
26-27 July 2014
Chicken soup and salt water
Racing took place around the cans at Waveney & Oulton Broad Yacht Club, for the RS Vareo Inland Championships sponsored by Gul Watersports.
The wind was manageable and set to decrease during Saturday with even less forecast for Sunday, but the most notable features of the wind were the shifts and gusts resulting from the Northerly direction combined with the threat of a sea breeze generated by the hot sunny conditions.
Nick Crickmore was in attendance to defend his title against opposition from a small but quality fleet including challenger Mark Smith returning from last year's event, Chairman Matt Yallop (a previous Inlands winner and National Champion) and local RS300 hot shot Duncan Madin.
The weekend began with a morning of boat tuning & comparing set ups etc, attended by the whole fleet plus other Vareo owners from the region just spectating. Some time was spent around getting 266 ready to race following a significant spell away from serious competition. Perhaps a little too much attention to the one boat, as in and around the first race everyone else in the fleet suffered from rigging mishaps to some extent.
Before racing the fleet met in the park café for lunch - a variety of meals were consumed but what was of great interest to all was the chicken broth that Matt ordered which turned out to be thick enough to eat with a knife and fork.
In race 1 Nick got the starboard end start leaving him in a position to take sole advantage of the first significant shift from which he didn't look back for the next 3 legs until a spinnaker jam allowed Duncan and Matt to pass on the run. Duncan and Matt then battled it out for the remainder of the race with Duncan finishing first, closely followed by Matt.
In Race 2 the wind steadied a little and Duncan got away first followed by Nick and then Mark, Duncan gradually increased his lead, until the last lap when the chasing fleet caught up to make it a race again, but he still managed to stay ahead.
After race 2 Mark took his customary Inlands swim, this time due to an incident mooring at the jetty, however he did settle his own question - the water in Oulton Broad is not brackish despite it being so near to the sea.
In race 3 Nick was first at the start, but misjudged the line bias, was over and had to go back so again found himself playing catch up. He twice got to within talking distance of Duncan but in both cases Duncan was able to dig deep and come up with a little something extra to get away again.
On day 2 there was a brief review of video training material taken in day 1 followed by 3 more scheduled races. In the event, the overall results were settled after one race in very trying conditions and all agreed to finish then for an early prize giving and a good start for the journey home.
Congratulations to Duncan Madin, our new Inlands Champion.
Overall Results:
1st 266 Duncan Madin (WOBYC)
2nd 165/550 Nick Crickmore (WOBYC)
3rd 572 Mark Smith (Alton Water)
4th 162 Matt Yallop (Middle Nene)