RS800 Racing Circuit at Hayling Island Sailing Club

An exciting weekend!

30 RS800s pitched up to Hayling Island Sailing Club to be greeted by 20 knots sweeping across the dinghy park and an excited air of expectation for what was to prove the most exciting round of the UK series to date.

With the tide already on the way out the call was made to lay a course out to sea. The building chop produced wild rides downwind with teams pushing as hard as they dared whilst trying to avoid ploughing into the wave in front.

Laurie Fitzjohn-Sykes & Daniel Allin were kept it upright the whole way around to take the win, followed home by Peter Barton & Roz Allen ‘Murciatastic.co.uk’ who had taken a tumble into a wave on a drop. With the wind freshening the PRO made the sensible decision abandon further racing that day.

Sunday dawned with similar wind but the benefit of a high tide to race within the harbor. Two races were to be had before the wind freshened again which gave no discard and a premium on surviving each course.

Spod Olive & Guy Fillmore ‘Harken ’and Andy Jeffries & Adam Broughton ‘Kiss My RS’ proved the form teams for harbour blasting although a gear failure of a DNF on Saturday kept Spod off the podium and one prolonged swim after leading Saturday’s race kept Andy down in second overall.

Ultimately, consistency shone through with steady eddies Rob Watson & John Clifton posting 3,4,3 to take the weekend demonstrating that a reliable performance can be more important than chasing hard for the top spots.

Charlie Roome & Tom Jeffcoate ‘Gill Race Team’ rounded out the podium with another consistent performance to take 3rd.

Eddie whitehead & Karen Baker won the Silver fleet in 7th overall.

Quotes from the boat park:

Rob Watson - ‘It was crazy out there! We watched 4 boats capsize around us and opted for a safe mode across the finish!’

Andy Jeffries - ‘We tried to play safe, mostly. Anticipation was vital in the crowded harbour’

Adam Broughton - ‘Best sailing of the year!’

Spod Olive - ‘Surf city! We pushed hard when we could but you had to keep you whits about you planning and executing the maneuvers. Big Kahunas.’

Next up:

At the end of this week the fleet sets off for the big one – the Carnac Eurocup with the form book wide open. Watson & Clifton are proven speedsters in the light and also steady in the breeze. Jeffries & Broughton are capable, if they can keep it together for a series of good counters. McGrane & Videl return hoping to pick up their early season domination. Barton & Allen will be hoping to peak in time to pull off their 4th consecutive Eurocup victory. The fleet will be joined buy John Pink & Jonny Clegg looking for some variety training after taking the runner up spot at the 49er Worlds last week and hoping to go one better than their 2nd last year. Over the past couple of years many top contenders have been enthusiastically upping their game and there are several more teams who could pull of a result on the day.

Overall Results: