Please select your home edition
Edition
RS Sailing 2021 - LEADERBOARD

RS Sailing RS200 Northern Tour at Coniston Sailing Club

by Jon Ward 11 Aug 2016 12:00 BST 6-7 August 2016

Youth vs Experience

Coniston Sailing Club hosted the fifth event of the RS Sailing RS200 Northern tour on the weekend of 6th and 7th August; this was the club's first ever RS200 open meeting. Despite the strong wind forecast, nine visitors joined the Coniston this weekend with nine visitors joining three home boats.

The competitors were greeted on Saturday with both sun and a south easterly wind force 3-4 blowing the length of Coniston Water.

The first race started promptly leaving Keith Escritt & Andrea Clough and Jon & Heather Ward at a significant disadvantage as their boats were still on shore when the start gun sounded. Martin & Sian Joesbury took an early lead but were slowly ground down by the undoubted boat speed of Ollie Groves and Esther Parkhurst in these conditions. Ollie & Esther pulled away to win the race with Martin & Sian in second with Martin & Barbara Smith taking third.

The second race was led at the first mark by Jon & Heather Ward, however Martin and Barbara delayed their gybe and took the lead downwind and sailed away to a clear win. Ollie and Esther finished second with Martin & Sian taking third.

The final race of the day saw Ollie & Esther showing their heavy wind expertise to take the win, with Martin & Sian in second and Martin & Barbara in third.

The fleet finished the day somewhat tired, but with a ballistic westerly wind forecast for the Sunday it was unclear whether there was going to be an opportunity to sail any further races.

The wind has most certainly increased in strength on the Sunday morning to force 5 plus. Fortunately the wind was still blowing from a south westerly direction. The first beat gave the fleet a clear choice of whether to take a long starboard tack out into the strongest wind and lumpiest water or to take a port tack hitch into more manageable wind and water conditions, but with uncertainty over the consistency of the wind. All the fleet except Martin and Sian took the long starboard tack option. Martin and Sian took the port tack hitch, picked up a nice shift and sailed away into a clear lead. The race turned into a battle between Martin and Sian's canniness and Ollie and Esther's undoubted boat speed advantage in these conditions. Every time Ollie and Esther looked to have closed the gap, Martin & Sian managed to find a better routing and looked to have sailed to victory until a final gybe within metres of the finishing line proved their undoing. Behind the two leaders, there was carnage with boats heading off in all sorts of strange directions and plenty of capsizes to keep the spectators entertained. Ben Swyer and Mark Slater from the host club sailed really well in the conditions to take second followed by Martin & Barbara in third.

A sensible decision was made by the Race Officer to bring the fleet in for an early lunch. Almost simultaneously the wind increased in strength and swung more westerly creating all sorts of challenges sailing back into the shore with even more capsizes on offer for the spectators. After a very quick consultation between the race officer and the competitors, it was agreed to abandon the remaining races. This left Ollie & Esther with a clear victory with Martin & Barbara taking second on count back from Martin & Sian.

In terms of the overall series, Martin and Sian have a one point lead from Keith & Andrea, but with Ollie & Esther now applying real pressure a further point behind.

Coniston also saw the first of the Ropes4Boats raffles with Martin & Barbara winning a £20 voucher and Jon & Heather winning a £10 voucher.

The Northern Tour would like to thank RS Sailing for their series support and Rope4Boats for their raffle prizes.

Overall Results:

PosSail NoHelmCrewClubR1R2R3R4Pts
11333Ollie GrovesEsther ParkhurstBeaver1(2)113
21068Martin SmithBarbara SmithDelph(3)1337
31606Martin JoesburySian JoesburyBudworth232(6)7
4702Ben SwyerMark SlaterConiston Sailing Club56(7)213
51560Jon WardHeather WardBudworth(10)55414
6968Keith EscrittAndrea CloughYorkshire Dales SC744(DNC)15
7939Colin RawlinsonMax RawlinsonConiston Sailing Club4(RET)6515
8935Simon YatesShellee BullousNotts County67(9)821
91118Erica CaswellIan CaswellYorkshire Dales SC(8)88723
101405Jude BairdFred FullerLoch Ryan Sailing Club91011(DNC)30
11687Sam JonesChloe SlaterConiston Sailing Club(RET)910RET32
121036R LudlamS Ludlam (DNC)RETDNCDNC39

Related Articles

RS Sailing Store's 'Pre-Order Sail' Offer for 2026
Save Now, Sail Later! Are you already pumped for next year? So are the team at RS Sailing Store. There's nothing quite like the feeling of hoisting a crisp, new sail for the first race of the season. Posted on 2 Sep
Poole Week 2025 day 6
A (Relatively) Gentle Way To Wind Up The Week After one of most consistently breezy Poole Weeks of recent years, everyone was hoping that the wind had seen the forecast for Friday and would know that it was supposed to moderate. Posted on 30 Aug
Poole Week 2025 day 5
A Jolly Hard Way To Earn A Beer As ways go to earn yourself a pint (the day's sponsor was Hall & Woodhouse), racing on the Thursday of Poole Week in 2025 was probably among the harder ones. Posted on 29 Aug
Poole Week 2025 day 4
A Wait For The Wind To Wane Whether good things always come to those who wait might be debatable, but they certainly did on Wednesday. The morning really wasn't very nice: lots of rain, and gusts up to nearly 30 knots. Posted on 28 Aug
Poole Week 2025 day 3
All Change On The Western Front If you like sailing in windy weather, the Tuesday of Poole Week was a day to savour. Some love the excitement, the challenge, the satisfaction of a job well done if you get around the course, and the sense of exhilaration and relief. Posted on 27 Aug
Poole Week 2025 day 2
Monday Sun-Day (Again) It's rare to have weather that's as similar on two successive days as it was on the Sunday and Monday of Poole Week 2025. Monday was, like Sunday, a beautiful day on the water. Posted on 26 Aug
Poole Week 2025 day 1
A wonderful way to start the week It would have been hard to ask for better sailing conditions than those that greeted the competitors in Poole Week as they headed out into the harbour for the first day of racing. Posted on 25 Aug
Noble Marine RS200 Nationals at Abersoch overall
Congratulations to Tommy and Charlie Darling! The boats are in, the wetsuits are hanging up and the bar is open - that's a wrap on the Noble Marine RS200 Nationals at SCYC. Congratulations to Tommy and Charlie Darling - 2025 RS200 National Champions! Posted on 9 Aug
Noble Marine RS200 Nationals at Abersoch day 4
Shifts and swell define another huge three race day! Shifts and swell define the fourth day of the 2025 Noble RS200 National Championships... another huge three race day! Posted on 8 Aug
Noble Marine RS200 Nationals at Abersoch day 3
3 races were completed in 8-14 knots with intermittent sun Another gorgeous day in Abersoch! Slightly fewer knots of breeze and slightly fewer hours spent on shore... three races were completed in 8-14 knots with intermittent sun! Posted on 6 Aug