RS100 Southern Championship at Parkstone Yacht Club

RS Southern Champs at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

RS Southern Champs at Parkstone © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.co.uk

Neal Freeman is the new RS100 Southern Champion for 2015 © Liz Harrison

A fleet of sixteen 8.4 rig RS100s appeared for the RS Southerns held at Parkstone YC. The usual suspects were nearly all in attendance, boosted by, among others, three always fast but reluctant to travel Parkstone boats. One notable exception was your usual correspondent David Smartie-blue-stripe. Given David and Greg Booth are seldom more than 5 boats apart at any regatta, would Greg be able to cope without his Daemon?

For most of the week, the forecast had been for a light to moderate breeze, but happily there was sufficient to heat up downwind, with the breeze blowing off the shore providing some interesting shifts.

Race 1: It's always good to get an event kicked off with a nice clean start. Oops. Accounts differ as to the chain of events, but the upshot of a 10-seconds-to-go tangle-up included Al Dickson capsizing (and his favourite cap completely disappearing), Hywel Roberts breaking his tiller extension and Clive Eplett doing a penalty turn having failed to keep clear of Neil Freeman to leeward. We never have this trouble when the Parkstone fleet are absent.

Meantime. the rest of the fleet sailed off, with Tom Powell from Cardiff YC leading around the first mark, closely followed by a pack comprising Greg (no, not missing Smartie at all) Booth, Huw Powell, Neal Freeman and Phil Jackson. These three enjoyed a tussle for the rest of the two-lap race, with Greg showing superior downwind speed to take the bullet, Neal taking second, Phil third and Huw ("I need more wind") crossing fourth.

Al Dickson's excuse for his 12th place was that he finally found his cap at the first windward mark attached to the bottom of his centreboard. Answers on a postcard please as to how this could actually happen.

Race 2: Having upset several people in the first race, Al Dickson decided to stay well out of everyone's way and start on his own at the pin. He'd clearly forgotten that the pin at 100 events categorically belongs to Al Hall. No respect these youngsters but, showing further insensitivity, he converted this to a never to be contested lead.

Clive also started towards the pin end, arriving third at the first mark with the ever consistent Greg arriving second. Clive and Greg then had a great tussle for the rest of the race until slippery-downwind-Greg slipped on the final gybe and went for a swim, dropping to 8th. Meantime, Neal finds more pressure on the right to grab second, with Clive third, Hywel fourth and not-having-a-good-day Chairman Mark Harrison fifth.

Race 3: Al Dickson again steals Mr Hall's pin, but clearly there is a bit more wind as Huw Powell is in his more familiar position of leading around the first mark. The not-to-be-missed incident was elsewhere though, where my-day-is-getting-even-worse Mark Harrison capsizes on his final approach tack, inverts and proceeds to sit on his boat rewarding (!) himself with a chocolate bar. Very Flaky psychology that, surely, although once upon a time, this could instead have made a good cigar commercial.

Adverts over and back with the sailing, Greg's earlier dip seemed to have woken him up, as he rounds next, chased by Al Dickson, Neal and Tom Powell. Al gybes off to grab second from Greg then does the same to Huw approaching the gate on the next run to secure another bullet, with Huw second, followed by Greg, Neal then Hywel. Allegedly, Harrison did eventually finish his mid-race snack and complete the course. Is being a grandfather slowing him down?

Day 2, Race 4: Not on Sunday morning it wasn't. Despite not being able to work out where the windward mark was, Harrison "got lifted every time I tacked" majorly over-standing but nevertheless reaching in with a never to be challenged lead. Phil Jackson was next but was eventually hunted down by Neal. Hywel then made it a solid Parkstone 2-3-4 (please come to some more events guys). Al Dickson claimed that Greg buying him too much beer the night before was the cause of his expensive 8th.

Race 5: A left shift during the countdown made the line port biased, with the pin going to Al Dickson (again, but bear in mind that Al Hall had decided to give Sunday a miss). However it was Neal Freeman who led at the first mark, followed by Al and Clive Eplett, who had started on the lifted port tack, then Hywel.

The latter two both got past Al on the run after which Neal and Hywel had a tight race, settled when Neal capsized one-sail gybing between the gate and the finish. Doh! Al had got past Clive on the fourth (and supernumerary) beat but was not close enough to capitalise on Neal's swim.

Race 6: The wind and chop increased substantially as the wind moved left 60 degrees. With only 5 starters, and Neal heading in for an early shower with the event already in the bag, there were some handy scores to be gained. Dickson had sobered up further (or perhaps it's the decades less wear and tear) and led from the off, surviving some iffy gybes but taking his third bullet of the weekend to cement second overall. Huw "any-not-capsizing-gybe-was-a-good-gybe" took second, for third overall.

Harrison put down his third place finish to gobbling yet another choccy bar but this time with the boat the right way up. Methinks he's hoping for some sponsorship from the confectionary sector. Gregg's fourth put him level on points with Mark, but Greg came out ahead on count-back. An honourable mention also goes to Tom Powell for hanging on in for the last race when the rest of us were dodging the chain-ferry or in the showers.

Thanks go to Parkstone for organising a great event and for putting our course miles closer to the harbour than the 200s, 300s and 400s who were buying ice-creams from Bournemouth beach. Or was it Highcliffe?

Oh, and a toast to the jellyfish that hide just beneath the surface and knock your centreboard and rudder up when you least expect it, making for some 'interesting' moments. Perhaps jellyfish should be fitted with a bright-blue stripe - we know just the man for the job.

Overall Results: