Fat Face RS K6 Circuit at the Royal Solent Yacht Club

Nine K6s turned out for the Royal Solent Yacht Club Open Meeting at Yarmouth on the weekend of 21st/22nd July and if modest in number the standard of entry was high; first position in each of the six races was shared between five boats. Another characteristic of the event was the number of young, seven crew members well under twenty years old and all sailing competitively.

Courses were a mixture of windward/leewards and round the cans started off the mainland coast by race officer George Chapman, a fleet favourite for his good humoured no nonsense organisation. Race one started in bright sunshine with a southwesterly three to four and Richard and Andrew Talbot in 165 judged the port biased line to a nicety and took an early lead pursued by Ian Nicholson with brother Mark in 155 closely followed by Martin and Amanda Wadhams and Emily Parker in Fat Face 170.

A dying breeze penalised heavier crews such as Artigiano 160 sailed by Myles Mence with Glyn and Alex Locke and the leaders pulled away downwind with 165 taking the gun and a well deserved win for the Talbot boys. Richard is under eighteen years old and Andrew under nineteen, both have been at the top of the RYA Laser youth circuit for a number of years and although swapping helm for this event will each have a K6 during Cowes Week, kindly lent by Jamie Sheldon and so watch for results.

In the meantime a rain front took away most of the breeze and the fleet sat out a postponement tucking in to soggy sandwiches; conditions were grey and what had promised to be a good day started to look windless. At the start of the second race the breeze came back and built to a two to three. Jonathan Calascione and Pyers Tucker in Take Two 152 determined to improve on their "warm up position" in the first race took the lead and battled boat for boat with Ian and Mark Nicholson hotly pursued by Terry Wilkinson and Sarah Nash in Red McGregor 119, these two-crew boats holding the advantage and finished in that order followed by Artigiano and Fat Face.

Race three was the first of the round the cans and the breeze building four to five, wind over tide with sun sparkling on the Solent chop, all was set for a spectacular race.

At the start Fraser Elms crewed by Georgina Smith and Natasha Styles in Djinn124 took the lead and swapped tacks with Wadhams and Nicholson up the first beat. At the mark 124 led from Wadhams and Artigiano and bore off slightly for a long close reach across the Solent to the Island shore. Fat Face put up a strong effort to hold off Artigiano but greater weight paid and Artigiano pulled through to challenge Fraser and ladies. Then followed a battle of attrition between the two with Fraser dominating until the mark and the beat towards Yarmouth when Artigiano was able to get through.

At the windward mark the fleet bore off for a spectacular broad reach in stiff wind over ebb and building sea. By the leeward mark Artigiano's lead was cut to a length by Fat Face and 155 surfing up behind with sprits in the air and wings of water catching the sun.

A little further back Richard and Andrew Talbot had their boat in perfect balance in the testing conditions and the other young crew of Jon Russell, Charlie Kearns and Jonny Williams in 106 were sailing a steady race later complaining they couldn't hear their waterproof Ipod and speakers as the spray was making too much noise, apparently only Led Zeppelin was workable. Jonathan and Pyers meanwhile had to accept a tow as frustratingly their brand new rudder blade had snapped just beneath the stock. Peter French and Warren Oldershaw sailing borrowed166 also kept control and enjoyed the ride. At the finish Artigiano took the gun followed by Fat Face and Ian and Mark.

On Sunday the fleet launched in bright sunshine with a three to four southwesterly and flood tide. The first of the windward/leewards was taken by Fat Face closely followed by Fraser and ladies in Djinn who were consistently showing real speed, third place going to Jonathan and Pyers.

For race two the fleet settled down to beating up the Lymington shore in shallow water balanced by the fact that one seemed to get a port hand lift when out in the tide, you took your choice and hoped for the best. Ian and Mark liked sitting out in the tide and it paid decisively when a cruiser collected the windward mark on its rudder and carried it half a mile downtide; regardless the fleet used the yacht as turning mark although some suffered dearly for the moving target in particular Fat Face lost several places, Ian and Mark took the gun followed by Artigiano and Djinn.

The final race was a round the cans back to Yarmouth and George Chapman decided that a leg-stretch was in order, first mark Hurst about four miles away against the flood.The beat took the leader Artigiano one hour to complete with Djinn second to the mark followed by Ian and Mark the leaders keeping this position for the downwind legs before slipping through Djinn at the finish off Yarmouth.

Yarmouth is well regarded by the fleet and this event was no exception with everyone enjoying themselves and acted as an excellent tuning opportunity for those going to Cowes. Watch out at Cowes for the young: there will be three K6s crewed by nine under twenty one year olds, several of whom are very good sailors.

Overall Results:

1st 155 Ian Nicholson & Mark Nicholson 10pts
2nd 160 Myles Mence, Alex Locke & Glyn Locke 12pts
3rd 170 Martin Wadhams, Amanda Wadhams & Emily Parker 16pts
4th 124 Fraser Elms, Georgina Smith & Natasha Styles 19pts
5th 156 Jonathan Calascione & Pyers Tucker 21pts
6th 106 Jon Russel, Charlie Kearns & Jonny Williams 27pts
7th 165 Richard Talbot & Andrew Talbot 31pts
8th 119 Terry Wilkinson & Sarah Nash 33pts
9th 166 Peter French & Warren Oldershaw 37pts