RS200 West Country Boat Repairs SW Ugly Tour at Exe Sailing Club

Podium finishers at Exe for the RS200 South West Ugly Tour © Marilynn Booker

The RS200 South West Ugly Tour, sponsored by West Country Boat Repairs, visited Exe Sailing Club on the 9th June for round three of what must be the finest RS200 circuit in the country. As ever at Exe the visitors were greeted by sun, sea, a very welcoming home club and, as forecast, a 4-8kt Easterly breeze.

The visitors were met in the dinghy park by series regular Ed Whitehead who was dealing very badly with a three pint hangover after a quiet evening in Exmouth the night before. Ed found what looked like a comfortable spot on the floor nestled in amongst some teams polishing their boats, obviously keen to eke out every performance gain possible in the light winds.

Once everyone was rigged, recovered and briefed, the 13 strong fleet set out to the race course led by home-boat Mainwaring/Morgan to dodge the sandbanks and battle the tide to take a shortcut across the shallows out to the race area. While most of the fleet made it out safely, Team Phillips were seen standing waist deep in water on a sandbank next to their boat. It remains unclear whether they were (as claimed) taking things too seriously by adjusting their jib cunningham, or were simply bad at navigating.

Race 1 got away cleanly with the tide holding the fleet back from the line. Whitehead/Pound worked their way nicely through a gentle chop to a comfortable lead at the windward mark from a chasing pack of Turner/Mottershead, Norris/Summersgill and Team Phillips. Norris/Summersgill snuck through at the top of the second beat in some nice pressure and lead down the run to a shortened course from the Race Officer as the first of many big shifts came in. Norris/Summersgill crossed first, followed by Whitehead/Pound and Team Phillips.

The Race Officer quickly got his excellent team re-laying the course, something they were to become well practised at throughout the day, before starting Race 2.

Silver Fleet winners in the RS200 South West Ugly Tour event at Exe - photo © Marilynn Booker

A slightly port biased line became steadily more port biased in the last minute of the countdown, catching out Team Phillips and Senior/Conyers, who had to spin out from the pin end and fight their way through the fleet on port. This left plenty of space for Norris/Summersgill to tack onto port at the gun and lead the way up an increasingly biased beat, followed by Mainwaring/Morgan, Team Phillips, Team Smith and a recovered Senior/Conyers. The shift never went back, leaving little opportunity for place changing and some high scores for those who favoured a starboard end start. The race finished in almost the positions from the first windward mark rounding with Norris/Summersgill taking the gun from a chasing pack.

The course was squared again for Race 3 and this time it was Norris/Summersgill, alongside Senior/Conyers to be caught out by the tide at the pin end and both boats were head to wind and going backwards at the start gun. Team Smith and Sue and Mike Proven got great starts and stormed away, holding their advantage all the way up the first beat, only to be reeled in on the run. Norris/Summersgill snuck through to lead from Team Phillips and Team Smith at the bottom gate in an ever increasing swell and an ever-decreasing breeze (sadly a combination that spelt disaster for some pond dwellers who having seen their breakfast re-appear decided they were better off on solid ground and headed to shore).

What breeze there was filled in from the left up the last beat with Whitehead/Pound and Tuner/Mottershead making up some serious ground upwind and hold on down the run to take second and third, with Norris/Summersgill covering the fleet to take the gun.

The fourth and final race saw Norris/Summersgill and Team Phillips completely fail to learn from their previous mistakes and both span slowly away from the favoured pin end at the start gun having failed to make it over the line. Again.

Mainwaring/Morgan took out a healthy lead only to be thwarted by a very efficient hand break of seaweed down the run, Norris/Summersgill again made the most of a lack of weight and almost complete shutdown in breeze to get around the leeward gate first, followed closely by a chasing pack of Whitehead/Pound, Turner/ Mottershead, team Phillips and Mainwaring/Morgan (having removed the handbrake).

Whitehead/Pound and Mainwaring/Morgan chose left while team Phillips and Turner/ Mottershead headed right up the final beat, leaving Norris/Summersgill floating in the middle to see which side the breeze would fill in from. The Race Officer wisely chose to shorten the race at the windward mark, allowing a nerve-racking finale with a number of potential race winners and overall podium spots up for grabs.

The right hand side came good and for a while Team Phillips looked dead set winners until their private patch of wind disappeared and headed, working in the favour of Norris/Summersgill to take the final win of the day, leaving a tight finish behind them. In the end Team Phillips took second (and with it second overall on countback) from Turner/ Mottershead.

Sun setting from Exe SC balcony - photo © Marilynn Booker

The fleet were greeted on shore with launching trolleys and tea and cake, a very accomplished and well-received application into the South West series cake-wars. Having seen the final results Lucy Phillips was seen muttering glumly about having to stick around to do the last race in future events if it meant doing better.

Overall Norris/Summersgill finished first with four race wins, followed by team Phillips and Whitehead/Pound on joint points in second and third respectively.

Mainwaring/Morgan convincingly won the silver fleet and finished fourth overall, possibly aided by the fact Fred helped pick who was in which fleet. And Senior/Conyers won the bronze fleet and are definitely a boat to watch if they can figure out that pin end.

As ever the host club put on an excellent show with great racing, a stunning venue (I can highly recommend fish and chips on the balcony watching the sun go down) and extremely friendly helpers.

The next RS200 South West Tour event sponsored by West Country Boat Repairs is on 21st July at Thornbury, a uniquely brilliant venue on the River Severn.

Overall Results: