Volvo Noble Marine RS100 Nationals at Weston Sailing Club - Day 3

Well, if day 2 saw good conditions for the RS100s, then day 3 was sublime. Overnight, the sky cleared and left a sunny, slightly chilly 12 – 17 knot NW which we soon learned is one of the best directions for racing in Southampton Water.

Friday's Prize giving

Day 1 Duckhams holder Giles awarded the honour of wearing the extremely attractive dress to none other than Mark Harrison for multiple infractions, capped by being blatantly and knowingly over the line at the Committee Boat but expecting wife Liz, calling the line on the Committee Boat, to let him get away with it. The consensus is that, having made such a horlicks of putting the dress on (it took about five minutes) he needs more practice and should have to wear it for the rest of the weekend. The fact he's just been caught, beer in hand without it, reaffirms this theory.

Race 1

After a bit of gentle encouragement, the fleet launched and quickly made their way across the 50m or so to the start line and into the race area.

The excitement of the fleet to start racing soon became evident and a big bunch at the port end caused the one and only general recall for the day. 'Big Bad' Barry knew what to do and kept the fleet under control with the black flag and a more hesitant 100 fleet eventually made their way across the start line and up the race course.

A left shift meant that boat speed on port tack became the priority and our Dutch guest started today where he left off yesterday and led around the windward mark. Adam Knight from Guernsey had a great upwind leg and was hot on Pim's heels. Al Dickson was close behind and eventually overcame Adam at the leeward mark and took off after Pim.

Pim kept Al at bay and led Al into the finish. Huw 'the bull' Powell charged up the race course into third ahead of Steven 'left, left and more left' Lee and Andrew 'hot tub and G&T' Jones.

Volvo Noble Marine RS100 Nationals at Weston day 3 - photo © Liz Harrison

Race 2

The hangover from Big Bad Barry's black flag treatment from the race before was still very much evident at the start of Race 2 and a line-shy fleet slowly edged across a pin bias start-line. The wind flicked left and the fleet tacked and drag raced into the windward mark. Pim once again led, closely followed by Andrew Jones, Steven Lee, and the rest of the fleet close behind. The gusty conditions meant picking when to gybe the critical decision downwind and Steven Lee did a great job to sneak into the lead whilst Pim, Alistair and Andrew played the well known 100 game 'who can gybe the most'. Steven covered on the next upwind and consolidated his lead on the, yes you guessed it, left-hand side. Al Dickson managed to pull ahead from Andrew Jones and Pim and caught Steven on the final downhill. Al managed to manoeuvre himself into the controlling position to the leeward position of Steven, but a broach on the gybe allowed Steven through to the finish. Al just managed to keep Pim and Andrew behind and the fleet finished in that order.

Volvo Noble Marine RS100 Nationals at Weston day 3 - photo © Liz Harrison

Race 3

Another pin end bias start, left shift and gust meant for one thing – yet another drag race into the windward mark on port tack. Al Dickson did the best job of getting over the fleet and led around the windward mark closely followed by Pim and Steven Lee. Greg Booth deserves a mention for struggling to get around the spreader and causing mayhem by tacking onto port into the chasing fleet.

Huw Powell was also in the chasing pack along with Clive Eplett and the new rising 100 'hot-shot nipper' Ed Jones.

The fleet converged at the leeward mark a little too hastily and shouts for turns could be heard across the race course. Pim tacked, Al covered and let Steven do his turns and head out to his safe haven on the left hand side. Steven was so confident the left was going to pay, he decided to do an extra turn and quickly slipped back into the lead. A pack of Vareos slowed down the remainder and Steve led around the windward mark and into the finish. Al came in second ahead of Pim, with Clive double gybing left between gate and line to sneak past a chuckling Huw and moaning Greg to pinch 4th.

Volvo Noble Marine RS100 Nationals at Weston day 3 - photo © Liz Harrison

Race 4

A big black cloud on the right, a repositioned windward mark and a brief postponement kept the fleet guessing before the start of Race 4. The fleet took off and the race followed the theme of the previous three with the leaders coming out from the left. Greg Booth led around the top mark closely followed by Al Dickson, Huw Powell and Chris Goldhawk. This bunch tussled with each other all the way up to the top of the second beat. Al Dickson managed to get the final shift right and led around the final windward mark. To gybe or not to gybe, that was the question. Al gambled and gybed – it looked great, then not so great and then great again. In the end, it didn't seem to make a difference as Al crossed the finished line the same distance ahead as he was at the windward mark. Chris (perhaps-I-don't-hate-sailing) Goldhawk had a great race and finished second closely followed by Huw Powell who had made another charge and Brett Aarons who was slowly recovering from an otherwise difficult day.

Overall, Al Dickson had a storming day (Clive's words) and now leads the fleet by one point, closely followed by Pim just one point behind. Brett Aarons drops down to third, just ahead of Steven Lee.

In the Silver Fleet, Ed Jones consolidated his lead, out-performing his old man Andy on the day with a consistent 9-8-7-9. Luke Goble remains in second with Adam Knight moving into third after a strong day.

The Bronze Fleet remains unchanged, with Nick Griffin leading from Simon Lomas-Clarke and Jeremy Gilbert

It's all to play for on Sunday, with two more races scheduled. The forecast has moderated from probably not-sailable to yee-ha. Fingers crossed for more great racing. Whoever wins this will have earned it (obviously Clive wrote this bit too).

Results after Day 3: