RS100 Open at Llandegfedd Sailing Club

RS100 Open at Llandegfedd SC prize winners (l-r) 2nd place Mark Williams (Gurnard SC), 1st place Mark Harrison (Gurnard SC), 3rd place Tom Powell (Llandegfedd SC) © Llandegfedd SC

The RS100s were joined by the RS Vareos at Llandegfedd on July 1st and 2nd for some classic snakes and ladder sailing. In the absence of your normal correspondents, the literary genius Clive and smarty pants David, the report was written by a small committee with a game of pass the tablet.

The course for the first race was set up for Southerly force two which lasted the first lap then the breeze went right 45 degrees allowing the early lead of Dave Jarrett to be dissolved by the trio of Mark Williams, Tom Powell and Andy Howard, while second placed Mark Harrison tacked across behind them to limit his losses. David held out for a left hand shift which never came and so parked up to let the others pass him. Mark W went around the top mark first never to be seen again. He was followed home by Mark H and Tom.

After the course was reset for race two and a new found Westerly the wind went South Westerly at the start favouring those at the pin end. By the windward mark Mark H and Mark W were leading the way but by the leeward mark things had bunched up and David had his nose in front only to be mugged by the two Marks after leaving mark room. The second beat saw Mark H leading Mark W round the windward mark and a frenetic run ended with the order unchanged with Tom, Dave and Paul Luttman following the two Marks for the start of the last lap. At the top of the last beat Paul snuck under Tom and Dave and sailed to finish in third behind Mark H and Mark W.

With the 'Sea breeze' kicking in at a force four and gusting more for the third race the RO cut his losses and positioned the windward mark between its positions in the previous two races. MH caused the X flag to get some use, but a quick restart reduced his losses. Tom and Mark H took the left option up the beat which turned out to be the right option as they rounded the windward mark in that order followed by the usual suspects. Mark H lassoed a gust and yahooed his way home while David and Mark W passed Tom. On the last lap David in second manage to lasso the spread mark with his spinnaker sheets and towed it to leeward allowing Mark W, Tom and Paul to pass and these three battled it out for second finishing with less than half a boat length between: Tom, Paul and Mark W in that order.

The overnight positions were Mark H leading from Mark W, Tom and Paul, and although the fleet launched Sunday morning the zephyrs would not settle down to a consistent direction so racing was abandoned. As always, after the prizes had been handed out and we were leaving a steady force 3 sea breeze filled in!

Thanks to all at Llandegfedd SC for running this event. The next UK event is the RS100 Volvo Noble Marine Nationals at Weston SC on September 7th to 10th, which already has 23 entries! Find all the information on the website here.

Overall Results: