RS Aero UK Spring Championship at Island Barn Reservoir Sailing Club

The weather played ball, with a cloudless blue sky all day and a shifty, brisk Force 3-4 wind from the east gusting up to 18kn. Class racing for 43 RS Aeros in these ideal conditions was just what the RS Aero UK Class needed after several months without an event!

The RS Aero Spring Championship 2021 was Island Barn's first major event of the year, coming only three weeks after the end of total club closure, and so a real test of all our systems, volunteers and continuing safety measures.

The Championship was split into three classes: RS Aero 5 (14 boats), RS Aero 7 (22 boats), and RS Aero 9 (7 boats) with 43 boats total - a great turn-out with a good number from the Solent area. Island Barn, the host club had a strong local fleet of 15 boats taking part. Each class had its own start separated in time by 6 minutes. We used two parallel, windward / leeward courses with common start and finish lines. RS Aero 5s and 9s raced on the outer course, with the larger RS Aero 7 Class racing on the inner course. This worked well.

RS Aero UK Spring Championship 2021 - photo © Gavin Hayhurst

RS Aero 5 Race 1 was won by David Peaty (Draycote), but he later faded down the order with a 6,8,7, allowing Tom Ahlheid (Frensham Pond) to take races 2 and 3, sealing an RS Aero 5 Class win with a last-race second. Jonathan Bailey (Hunts) finished second overall with a closely contested first in the last race. Graham Tribeck (Hillhead) was consistent with a 5,5,4 score line, coming third overall.

The large and very competitive RS Aero 7 Class had no fewer than 5 boats starting prematurely on race 1. Only two returned and so we had three OCS casualties. The Class behaved well for the rest of the day. Simon Geyman (Datchet Water and Lymington) won race 1 (after returning ashore to install his tiller extension after launching!), but faded in the next three races to come third overall. Island Barn's Andy Wishart made up for his OCS in race 1 with a consistently strong 4,2,3 score line to finish runner up to Tim Hire (Lymington) who took first overall in the RS Aero 7s with a commanding 2,2,1 score. Improving throughout the day was recent class newcomer Sam Brackley (Felpham) taking the big win in race 4 - as they say; "you are only as good as your last race!"

RS Aero UK Spring Championship 2021 - photo © Gavin Hayhurst

With the threat of stronger afternoon winds, the RS Aero 9 class was the smallest with 7 entries. Harry Moffatt's (Hunts) sailing improved throughout, vying for the lead in race 4 and taking third place overall. Chris Hatton (Bowmoor and Lymington) must wonder what he has to do to win an event, because a brilliant 2,2,2,1 score was still not enough to beat Peter Barton's (Lymington) dominance in the 9s with three firsts and a second.

It was fantastic to see so many new faces joining the fleet and several making appearances at the front during the day. Congratulations to everyone on what was a tricky day with some hefty gusts coming in with shifts. The very flat water and the shifty gusty breeze enabled the lighter sailors in each rig size to hold their own, providing a good leveller of body size across each fleet.

Many thanks to Island Barn Sailing Club and all their volunteers for supporting our event and all the extra efforts to deploy a solid covid event plan. With dual winches working efficiently the light-weight RS Aero fleet was whizzed up the bank to their elevated race course in no time, after first receiving a hull and trolley rinse to help control the spread of any invasive species.

Next up on the UK RS Aero calendar is the Lymington Town open on 15th May before the fleet visits Weymouth and Portland for the two day RS Aero UK Southern Championship on 29/30th May.

See also the RS Aero UK Event List 2021

Overall Results: