Volvo Noble Marine RS200 National Championships - Day 2

Sponsored by Volvo and Noble Marine

After day 1 was blown off, the 238 RS200 sailors were keen to get on the water, and were released on time for a big day's racing.

Today was the day to be pathfinder for the gate start. Long slow shifts in reasonably consistent breeze gave those massive levers with a few lengths of a head start a big advantage.

Race one was led from start to finish by pathfinders Dicken Maclean and Hannah Young. They started with a long lifted port shift and got a cheeky righty to get them back into the middle of the course. Behind them many of the favourites struggled to get back from the left hand corner of the beat and had a lot of recovery to do. After team Maclean/Young, the honours went to James and Will Rusden and George Yeoman and Sophie Ormsby

Race two was led by Hamish Walker and Emma Hivey, again from start to finish. There was a lot of carnage to contend with at the first windward as the fleet was massively affected by the incoming tide. Team Walker/Hivey spent their race monitoring only the team of Edd Whitehead and Alice Kingsnorth as these two teams cruised away from the rest of the fleet. Our Olympic star snuck through on the last lap to claim third place in the race.

Race three saw the tide change, causing a short first beat giving issues for those boats starting late. Nick and Juliet Charles punched out of the middle of the line to lead the race from start finish with pathfinders Ian and Chloe Martin battling with Maclean/Young for second and third. With quite short beats, there was only one dominant shift per beat there weren't massive gains to be made with the lesser positions only slightly changing throughout the race.

Sailors came ashore to a refreshing drink from sponsor Stur, followed by a buddy group pub quiz, the scores of which will be added to the sailing results for the Harken buddy prizes.

Overnight, the consistency of team Martin and team Rusden has put them on equal points in the lead, with Josh Flack and Millie Alcock leading the silver fleet and Keri and Theo Harris the bronze, but with so many contenders it looks like it's going to be a high scoring week.

uk.rs200sailing.org

Results so far: