RS Aero Magic Marine Southern Championship at Lymington Town SC

Matthew Caiger of Sevenoaks wins the RS Aero 5 fleet at the RS Aero Magic Marine Southern Championship © Alex & David Irwin / www.sportography.tv

Chloe Martin wins the RS Aero 7 fleet at the RS Aero Magic Marine Southern Championship © Alex & David Irwin / www.sportography.tv

The RS Aeros formed part of the hugely popular RS Classes Southerns extravaganza event which maxed out at its 160 boat capacity a month in advance! There were a total of 27 RS Aero entries across the three RS Aero rig sizes, with the largest being the '7' fleet with 15 boats. The fleet was grouped into two starts, with the 5 & 9 rigs going together shortly followed by the 7 rigs.

In the '5' fleet, the racing was a close battle between recently crowned National Champion Archie Hainsworth and Matthew Caiger representing Sevenoaks School. In the end Matthew came out on top by a point. Both of these youth sailors showed excellent skill especially on the Sunday in testing wind over tide conditions and pushed each other hard in every race.

The '7' fleet was dominated by local sailor Chloe Martin who counted four 1st places and discarded a 1st. Pretty convincing really, and hardly surprising given the level of results in Laser Radials that Chloe has previously achieved. It certainly set a high benchmark and everybody enjoyed getting a momentarily look at "how to do it properly". Another young local sailor and Scorpion fleet legend Alex Hayman was 2nd overall counting only podium results. In 3rd place was Isle of Wight based Jane Peckham showing blistering upwind speed in Sunday's breeze. Special mention needs to be made of Ffinlo Wright travelling from the Isle of Man for the event achieving 4th place, taking a long break from sailing whilst he studied for his GCSEs.

In the '9' fleet regular class travellers Richard Watsham, Nigel Rolfe and Matt Thursfield slugged it out for the Top 3 positions, with Class met expert and jolly nice bloke Richard coming out on top with 3 wins. A mention in dispatches is required for Burghfield sailor Peter Chaplin taking a win on Saturday and then backing it up with two OCS to celebrate on Sunday!

It was very encouraging to see such a broad range of ages and sizes sailing the boats, and also the female near domination in the 7 fleet. Proving once again that the flexibility of the sail choice and excellent control of the carbon rig makes the boat manageable and enjoyable for everyone.

Jane Peckham of Gurnard SC, 3rd in the RS Aero 7 fleet at the RS Aero Magic Marine Southern Championship - photo © Alex & David Irwin / www.sportography.tv

Well done to all at Lymington Town Sailing Club for pulling off this gigantic sailing extravaganza in their 70th anniversary year and a whopping great Saturday night party too! Thanks to Magic Marine and Harken for their great support.

The next biggie in the European calendar is the first RS Aero European Championship [Link; www.rsaerosailing.org/index.asp?p=event&eid=1058] at Travemunde Woche, Germany, next month on 25-29 July. With the high summer now upon us Regatta Season is here too with an abundance of local regatta gems to choose from.

Keep in touch with Everything Aero via the Class website at www.rsaerosailing.org and facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/rsaeroclass

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