RS300 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

114 boat from 6 RS classes, of which 9 were RS300s, gathered at Parkstone YC for the Southern Championships. The Southern contingent got their excuses in that it was too far to travel so close to the Nationals and Martin Harrison was so excited about a local event he entered his surname twice. Top merit award of the weekend goes to Mark Taylor and Alistair McLaughlin for making the short commute from Prestwick!

The Principal Race Officer decided that we would be racing out in Poole Bay which meant a nice 1h20min sail to the start area in not a lot of wind, but once the racing got going the wind started to pick up which made for some good sailing.

Race 1 saw Tim Keen take an early lead from Martin Harrison-Harrison and Sam Knight. Race 2 was much the same Tim Keen leading, followed by Martin Harrison-Harrison and Rich Le Mare 3rd. The Start of race 3 was 2 seconds late (according to Tim Keen) which meant Premature Pete Ellis had passed on the early starting baton which he had acquired at the Slalom event earlier in the year. Sam Knight won the race followed by Martin Harrison-Harrison and Tim Keen.

After much of the fleet had been fed, watered and rested at Chris Arnell's house on Saturday night (he was unable to participate) the fleet headed out one again towards Poole Bay on Sunday morning. Sun shining and wind blowing it made the trip out of the harbour a lot more fun and more difficult. Gary Morris said he was going to have a go at drinking all that water in Poole Harbour but could only manage half of it which finished him off for the day. The other competitors decided on a game of chicken with the Brownsea Island Chain Ferry.

Race 4 saw Rich Le Mare power away for victory closely followed by Tim Keen and Martin Harrison-Harrison. The wind continued to build for Race 5 where Tim Keen sneaked a win closely followed by Rich Le Mare and Martin Harrison-Harrison.

A depleted fleet of 3 started Race 6. Not only did they have wind, waves and other RS classes to contend with, but a fleet of motor cruisers decided that trying to get an RS300 downwind in 20knts is not hard enough so they thought they would throw themselves into the mix. Tim Keen had a swim while leading but Martin Harrison-Harrison was unable to maximise the situation finishing just behind, closely followed by the ever battling Ben Green.

Many thanks go to Parkstone Yacht Club for hosting the event and also to Clare Sargent for the organisation of the RS classes.

Overall Results: