Gul RS200 Grand Prix at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club

Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club treated the RS200 fleet to a fabulous weekend of bright sunshine, close racing and great cakes. With 34 boats, wind, waves and massive courses the sixth Gul Grand Prix event provided the perfect warm up to the RS Games next month.

Saturday afternoon started with a leisurely run to the start in the sun. However with an offshore breeze and clouds bringing both shifts and pressure, this was not going to be straight forward racing. Ben Saxton / Sophie Ainsworth showed a clear statement of intent, leading from start to finish after controlling the left hand side of the first beat. Charlotte Savage / MJ Gifford took second from Lily (Chris Catt / Ally Martin).

In Race 2 Juliet Charles and Alice Kingsnorth politely sheeted in at 20 seconds to go, to restart around the end of the line, failing to notice such a little black flag. Rob and Jan Martin (Molly) stormed up the left hand side to lead at the first mark but had bad luck with a big gust on the reach. Steve Dun / Karen Baker managed the swinging breeze to take the race from Saxton / Ainsworth and Matt Mee / Emma Norris (Polly).

In the next race several of the front runners fell foul of the new black flag, the biggest we’ve seen this side of Bristol. Saxton / Ainsworth made the most of their head start to finish a country mile ahead. A black cloud off Beachy Head brought pressure from behind on the last run, so the entire fleet approached the finish line together. Mee / Norris held their nerve to take the win from John Teague /Claire Walsh.

Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club put on a lovely evening, with a curry, cake and Crabbies... possibly the most manly alco-pop money can buy.

On Sunday, the fleet were surprised when a beautiful force 5 kicked in from the west, accompanied by rolling waves... this was not what we expected when we got changed! We squinted into the distance to find the windward mark, secretly worrying about whether we could actually hike for that length of time. The course was so big that after screaming downwind, half the fleet decided to drop their kites and head up round a random black buoy rather than carry on to the leeward mark. Lily reached past them heading for the real buoy, leaving chaos in her wake. Ed Whitehead / KT Nicholls and Ian Sharps / Ellie Martin (Isabella) managed to fend off the rest of the chasing pack and hold their positions to the finish.

Race 5 saw Saxton / Ainsworth back in the lead, this time pursued by the rapid Mark Heather / Edward Cowell and Neil Barrett / Sophie Jones. The wind was getting up still further. Sharps / Martin made it downhill in the lead, purely by staying upright. Mee / Norris were close behind and cunningly created themselves a gap by gybing on Lily; the sudden lull sending her in to windward in front of a crowd of boats all trying to get round the the leeward mark. Dunn / Baker (mostly Baker) later hiked past into second.

The wind increased further still and many of the fleet sensibly chose more cake and early showers over the last race. However the final podium positions were still to be decided. A race long battle between Saxton / Ainsworth and Dun / Baker, saw Saxton / Ainsworth clinch the win to take the event. Heather / Cowell held on to a well deserved third.

The final results from the Eastbourne Gul GP event were Saxton / Ainsworth winning from Sharps / Martin and Mee / Norris. Silver fleet, and the white jersey, went to Matt Giles and Rory Davies. Bronze fleet was won by Julian Bradley and Chloe Sideris.

A great weekend all round, here is hoping for more of the same at the RS Games in Weymouth in less than a month. With 138 entries so far, it’s going to be one not to miss.

Overall Results: