RS200 Sprint Championships at Rutland Sailing Club

This weekend Rutland sailing club hosted the ever popular RS Sprint championships. With fewer teams than normal perhaps due to the strong wind forecast 13 RS200s were greeted by a chilly 20 knot westerly.

Although a small fleet, the competition was tough with many teams already fearing not making the Gold fleet cut for the finals on Sunday. The 13 teams were divided into 4 flights for the 12 race round robin qualification format on Saturday.

Race one saw the red 'flight of death' paired with the teams in blue. Ally Martin & Simon Potts took the win from George Yeoman & Sophie Ormsby - this battle set the tone for the day. Matt Mee & Emma Norris pulled through from being last round the first mark to take 3rd.

In the other race Ben Saxton; 2012 National Champion fresh from his Nacra 17 exploits, sailing with fellow GBR windsurfer Izzy Hamilton, took first place. Andy Shaw & Pippa Horne showed great upwind pace to finish 2nd followed by Tom Taylor and Robbie Poole with a solid 3rd.

Ally & Simon went on to win their second race with George & Sophie taking the win in the other race followed closely by Ben & Izzy. John and Sarah McKelvie recorded their best race of the Saturday with a 3rd place. In races 3 and 4 for Matt & Emma posted back to back wins with George & Sophie and Ben & Izzy taking a win a piece in their races. Ally & Simon were never far behind posting consistent 2nd and 3rd places.

With two races remaining the top 3 teams were split by one point. Ally & Simon swapped roles and posted 2 commanding 1st places to take the day on count back from George and Sophie who were not outside the top 2 all day. Matt and Emma finished the day in third overall after a tough battle with the Saxton brothers in the final race.

The teams returned to the shore cold and exhausted after a tough 4 hours on the water to see who had made the cut. Retirements in the final race proved costly; Tim Saxton and Jody Green rounded off the top 6 with Josh Metcalfe & Emma Best in 5th overall after a consistent day with Ben & Izzy qualifying in 4th.

Unfortunately Sunday was always unlikely to happen based on the weather forecast which proved to be true to form. The race committee reported a solid mean in the high 20's with gusts well into the 30's. Racing was abandoned after consultation with the various fleet representatives which proved to be a popular decision given the breeze was set to increase further for the next few hours.

The results from Saturday stood with Ally & Simon taking the overall victory and becoming the 2015 Sprint Champions.

Overall Results: