RS400s during the Rooster RS Summer Championship at Parkstone Yacht Club

RS400s Rooster RS Summer Championship © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

21 RS400s descended on Parkstone Yacht Club this weekend for the Rooster RS Summer Champs. There was a real buzz around the boat park with 120 boats attending in total, combined with blazing "suns out, guns out" weather.

A two-stage briefing made the plan for the day clear, including a four race Saturday in case the breeze failed to materialise on Sunday. All the while, the thermals were building and the wind was filling in nicely.

Racing was held out in the bay on the outer-loop of a course shared with the RS700s and RS800s. A perfectly laid course, with a dead square line, greeted the fleet after the scenic yacht out of the harbour. Race one got away with the majority of the fleet heading out to the right. Jon Heissig and Nicky Griffin chose to go hard left and got a good jump on the fleet at the first windward mark. A lead they held to the finish. Behind them racing was extremely close in the steady 12 knots of onshore breeze. Jon Gorringe and Rachel Rhodes showed good boat speed to finish second ahead of Russ and Penny Clark.

Race two felt rather similar to the first. Although this time the majority of the fleet headed left having seen Jon and Nicky's fantastic beat in race one. Only to get to the port lay-line and watch Jon and Nicky leading in from the hard right this time. Again they were never seen again. Gorringe and Rhodes were second again, ahead of Howard Farbrother and Lou Hosken in their shiny new boat.

RS400s Rooster RS Summer Championship - photo © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

The breeze dropped a little and shifted slightly left for race three. Two crews in a boat, Mark Oakey and Dan Martin, came out of the pin and managed to lead at the windward mark. Unfortunately they were no match for the speed of Gorringe and Rhodes but held on for second ahead of Sean Cleary and Annalise Nixon.

For the final race the breeze puffed up to give a fantastic blast downwind but also a lot of pain on tired legs upwind. Sean and Annalise sailed a fantastic race to win from the ever consistent Gorringe and Rhodes with the two crews managing to finish in 3rd.

A rather tired but happy fleet returned to shore where we were greeted with an ice cool beer at the tally hut. Needless to say there was 100% compliance with the tally system! This set the tone for a relaxed evening in the summer sun. Parkstone Yacht Club put on excellent food and live music, while pictures of the champagne sailing circulated on a big screen thanks to David Harding of Sailing Scenes.

RS400s Rooster RS Summer Championship - photo © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

Sunday morning dawned and the fleet were again met with blazing sunshine but unfortunately significantly less wind. The race team left the fleet ashore while they went to the racecourse to try and set courses. While on cup of tea number 15, with no sign of steady wind arriving, racing was abandoned for the day by late morning. Yet another fantastic display of efficient race management by the race team.

All prize winners - RS400s Rooster RS Summer Championship - photo © David Harding / www.sailingscenes.com

This gave Jon Gorringe and Rachel Rhodes the overall title but left the entire fleet with huge smiles after a weekend of champagne sailing and socialising with all our RS friends.

Overall Results: