RS200 Sprint Championship & Rooster National Tour Event 2 at Rutland Sailing Club

by Julian Bradley 26 Apr 2018 09:51 BST 21-22 April 2018

The essentials of risk management are "don't make any mistakes today, don't make any mistakes tomorrow, repeat". With no discards available to spend from the Bank of Stupid (I'm overdrawn), the sprints format meant you can forget all that aspirational stuff about "missing 100% of the shots you never take". Go fast, stay out of trouble. Easy, huh? Trickier when you've blancmange brain after several tours around an 'M' Shaped course of 7 or 8 marks.

Day one our estimable RO managed 4 races in a dying breeze. To be honest, it was wheezily asthmatic in the first place, but the sun was out, so amen to all that. All this meant picking the lift on the beats and getting lower than an armadillo's armpit downwind. At the end of day 1, Maria Stanley and Rob 'Top Bants Hendo' Henderson won 3, leading myself and the Killer Shrimp, then Steve and Becky Wilson (trapeze artists formerly associated with RS800s).

Then ensued for many the prospect of actually getting fed in the fleshpots of Edith Weston – with one pub and (probably) one horse. To be fair, the staff at the sailing club did sterling work. The barman (think Moe from 'The Simpsons'... I like to think he killed a man) demonstrated his stout snurger, and the lady in the kitchen hid her true, sunny disposition, behind a winsome scowl. I then managed to find myself locked out of my accommodation, but that's another tale.

Day two, and the breeze was up to force 3-4 for 6 races. Steve and Becky won the first, but it was then all Stanley and Henderson, who dominated with 8 wins from 10 for the weekend. Steve and Becky came in second from myself and Cafferata - for once not putting all our money on the Zero.

Thanks must go to Rutland Sailing Club, their charismatic staff and very efficient race management. Credit is also due to Clare at the RS Class Association for her organisational demonry, and Rooster, for the novel approach of awarding bathroom tiles as prizes. Just another 1,999 to go to finish my new lav.

Overall Results:

Rank	Class	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	R8	R9	R10	Total	Nett
1st	RS200	1642	Maria Stanley	Rob Henderson	Itchenor SC/ HISC	1	1	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	12
2nd	RS200	1	Steve Wilson	Becky Wilson	tbc	6	2	6	1	2	2	3	5	4	2	33	33
3rd	RS200	1178	Julian Bradley	Helen Cafferata	Wembly SC	3	4	4	2	4	4	4	4	6	6	41	41
4th	RS200	1347	David Jessop	Sophie Mear	Graham Water SC	2	3	2	9	5	5	7	2	3	4	42	42
5th	RS200	1373	Paul Cullen	Verity Hopkins	Weirwood SC	4	6	3	8	6	8	8	3	2	8	56	56
6th	RS200	1634	Cameron Stewart	Tom Harrison	HISC	9	7	9	4	3	3	6	10	5	3	59	59
7th	RS200	1331	Tom Ballantine	Emma Horn	Wessex SC	5	5	5	6	10	9	2	6	9	5	62	62
8th	RS200	1452	Alistair Hodgson	Joanna Worrall	RYA	8	8	8	7	8	6	5	9	7	7	73	73
9th	RS200	834	Andrew Gill	Ciara Perry	Bartley SC	7	10	7	5	7	7	9	7	8	9	76	76
10th	RS200	1670	Alice Senior	Matthew Conyers	Plymouth	11	9	10	10	DNC	10	10	8	10	10	100	100
11th	RS200	1132	Jonathan Leeding	Rachel Lennox	Hunts SC	10	11	11	11	9	11	11	11	11	11	107	107