Volvo Noble Marine RS700 Nationals at Castle Cove Sailing Club - Day 1
by Ben Willows 21 Aug 2015 14:09 BST
20-23 August 2015
The first race of the RS700 2015 nationals got underway in gusty conditions of 10 to 15 knots. The sailing was held inside Portland Harbour and the first start saw a heavily port end biased line. Jerry Wales got away best off the start and was closely followed up the first beat by Neil Ashby and Ben Willows. The downwind legs were very close with the gusts making a big difference to boat speed and saw lots of place changing. The top three of Jerry, Neil and Ben kept their positions all the way to the finish with some very close racing between them and the rest of fleet just behind.
Race number two got underway in slightly more breeze and saw Richard Wadsworth and Simon Letten get off the line well and extend up the first beat to the left hand side of the course. Neil Ashby sailed well again and got up in to 4th with Ben Willows coming through the fleet to finish 5th. Jerry Wales recovered from a high placing at the first windward mark to hoist his spinnaker halfway down the final reach to the finish line to sail right through to second place!
Throughout the fleet there was close racing all the way through the fleet and day one saw very happy RS700 sailors coming ashore after two really fun action packed races.
Results after Day 1:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Club | R1 | R2 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 1043 | Jerry Wales | Windsport | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 2 | 1042 | Simon Letten | Hayling Island SC | 5 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | 1011 | Neil Ashby | | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 4 | 1039 | Ben Willows | Gurnard SC | 3 | 5 | 8 |
| 5 | 720 | Richard Wadsworth | Stokes Bay SC | 8 | 3 | 11 |
| 6 | 1022 | Ian Swann | Hayling Island SC | 4 | 8 | 12 |
| 7 | 984 | Adam Golding | Hayling Island SC | 6 | 9 | 15 |
| 8 | 944 | James Bayliss | | 10 | 6 | 16 |
| 9 | 1041 | Huw Reynolds | Restronguet/RNSA | 9 | 7 | 16 |
| 10 | 958 | Andrew Brown | Hayling Island SC | 7 | 11 | 18 |
| 11 | 737 | Richard Kennedy | Thorney Island SC | 11 | 10 | 21 |
| 12 | 859 | Peter Onions | | 13 | 13 | 26 |
| 13 | 871 | Mark Nicholson | | 12 | 15 | 27 |
| 14 | 839 | Phillip Highfield | Gt Yarmouth & Gorleston SC | 16 | 12 | 28 |
| 15 | 1031 | Hamish Griffiths | QMSC | 15 | 14 | 29 |
| 16 | 1029 | Chris Kirk | QMSC | 14 | 16 | 30 |
| 17 | 820 | James Fuller | | 17 | 17 | 34 |
| 18 | 756 | Alistair Paul | Grafham WSC | 18 | 18 | 36 |