RS100 Sprint Championship at Rutland Sailing Club

RS100s during the RS Sprint Championship at Rutland © Peter Fothergill

RS100 class winner Ian Gregory in the RS Sprint Championship at Rutland © Max Tosetti

We need a new weather calculation system it appears. An average of 8 knots and an average direction of X does not take into account that, when it boxes all points of the compass, the net effect is no wind in no direction.

And that's what the OOD faced for our first two and a half hours of the 2017 RS100 Sprints at Rutland, nothing usable. However, patience is a virtue and finally a perfectly sailable, sometimes even planing NE filled in.

In race 1, young Robert Richardson showed us all how to start, leading from the off and never in real danger, possibly thanks to Steven Lee and Ian Gregory battling it out for second, which Ian finally took. Clive Eplett snuck inside David (wobbly-blue-stripe) Smart at the last to steal 4th.

Race 2 seemed to have elements of the Keystone Cops. National Champion Al Dickson got his act together and led from the off, unlike OCS Robert and an optimistic Greg Booth who thought he really did have an invisibility cloak, then when proven wrong could not find a space in which to return. Steve somehow capsized on the windward mark, providing an interesting obstacle for the rest of us. Ian then fell in on a gybe and disconnected his mainsheet block and DNFd - bit annoying when there are no discards. This left Mark (the committee boat is mine) Harrison and Clive battling for the minor places, with Clive again nicking it at the last mark. A hard charging Steve recovered to 4th, and Smartie again 5th.

Race 3 was a Dickson horizon job, with Ian this time making no mistakes for a safe second. Behind those 2 was a tight race that could have been anybody's. Ultimately it finished Smartie, Mark, Clive, a Grumpy Booth then Steve.

At which, the OOD called it a day, having run a full round-robin for the RS400s and RS300s.

Overnight, this left Al in a safe lead, Clive second on 11, Smartie 13 and Mark and Steve tied on 14. All to play for with 6 races scheduled for Sunday.

Sunday Launch and turn left was the instruction, towards another M-shaped course, this time using the full width of the Southern arm of the lake. Averaging a gentle Westerly but with phases of pressure coming from left and right, it was going to be a challenging, topsy-turvy day for all. But there's often an exception, in this case Ian Gregory, who with a 1-1-2, 1-1-2 score line for the day made Saturday's DNF an irrelevance. On a day when everyone else had at least one bad race, it was a masterful performance.

There will not be a blow-by-blow account of each of Sunday's races, because firstly, they are all a bit of a blur and secondly your correspondent was rarely in it to see what was happening at the sharp end. Sorry.

Steve Lee, in hardly his favourite conditions, was the next most consistent, but even he had an 8 in the final race, leaving him second and 8 points behind Ian even with his DNF 14.

National Champion Al Dickson had a mix it up day with an 8-8-1, 10-3-4 to take third on count back from (supposed to be good at this stuff) yours truly, with a 6-2-6, 7-9-1 at least contributing to a pair of Frensham Pond 1-2s and salvaging a modicum of pride at the last.

Fifth was David (I haven't sailed for ages) Smart who should be castigated for failing to get the rest of the Chew fleet to travel and join the fun.

In sixth, Robert Richardson who, worryingly, is only going to get bigger and even faster, won family bragging rights over dad John, with Chairman Mark Harrison between them.

I'll spare Greg his blushes about his overall 9th. Oops.

Thanks to RSC for putting on a successful event, as usual, in more than tricky circumstances. The Sprints are a great format, particularly for a season opener, recommended to all. Next year's Sprints will be 21-22 April 2018. The Sprints was the opening event of the 2017 RS100 Grand Prix generously sponsored by Magic Marine.

The next RS100 event is POSH at Paignton on 6-7 May. As it stands, we are the biggest fleet, so if you've not yet entered, doing so is highly recommended, there's bound to be more great racing.

Sailing photos by Peter Fothergill can be purchased at www.fothergillphotography.com

Overall Results: