Magic Marine RS600 Winter Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

Magic Marine RS Winter Championship at Grafham © Grafham Water SC Race Team

Day 1

A grey drizzly day with cold force 3 to 4 North Easterly winds greeted the three competitors for the Magic Marine RS600 Winter Championship, but the drizzle did stop before the racing started.

Race 1 - The lightest wind of the series produced the closest racing of the series also. Brian Briggs rounded the first windward mark just ahead of Dave Goudie with Matt Butler close behind. Only seconds separated the three boats, and it was the same order and spacing at the bottom of the first leeward leg. Matt stole the lead from Brian at the top of the second beat after having gone further left. The order stayed the same until the finish, but Dave fell back a bit after confusing swimming with gybing.

Race 2 - The returned stronger breeze enabled Brian to exploit his greater bulk and pull away on the first beat. Ignoring ominous noises from the kicker he managed to stay ahead for the rest of the race. In fact the three boats were well spaced by the finish. There may have been more swimming at the back.

Race 3 - In his post sailing analysis Dave claimed to have been on the wrong side of every wind shift, but he must have done something right on the first beat of this race. Despite having been OCS at the start he was close on Brian's transom, in second place, along the first reach. With the strongest breeze of the series it would have been more close racing had Brian's kicker not snapped at the top of the first downwind leg. Dave held the lead over Matt to the finish. Both of them looked tired when they came ashore.

Day 2

Weather much the same as day 1 but maybe a couple of degrees colder. Before they went afloat Dave announced that he wasn't going to compete any further as he'd worn out his shoulder on day 1. Three became two.

Race 4 - Brian again exploited his greater attraction to the planet to sail faster up the beats than Matt who was unable to regain the distance downwind. His swim at the bottom of the first run obviously didn't help either.

Race 5 - Started with the same pattern as race 4 but then Matt altered things by breaking his boat in a big way. He later said "I realised the seriousness when the hull had turned turtle but the mast was floating beside it". Two became one.

'Race' 6 - This only took place because the remaining competitor's brain was numbed by the cold and it didn't occur to him to do the maths and realise he could have got to a hot shower an hour earlier.

Many thanks to the Race Officer and all who gave up their time to make it a very well run series.

Overall Results: