RS Aero UK Southern Circuit round 3 at Lee-on-the-Solent Sailing Club

by Nigel Rolfe 3 Jul 2018 20:22 BST 23-24 June 2018

As we arrived at Lee On The Solent "local knowledge" suggested that given the sea state and wind direction a good sea breeze was building. It did not disappoint!

The RS Aero 9's started with the RS Aero 7 fleet but were on the larger windward course sharing it with the Phantom fleet. There was a noticeable increase in RS Aero 7 fleet numbers with the good breeze!

The wind was building during the day to provide excellent planning conditions with the opportunity for a bit of surfing on the well laid reaches! Given the excellent conditions the race officer took the decision to run four races (only three were scheduled). This was a very popular move allowing everyone to benefit from the great conditions with close racing.

On day one for the RS Aero 7s it was the Steve's upfront as Norbury and Cockerill battled it out. The rest of the pack saw Chris Jones and Nigel Rolfe getting the better results to be third and fourth overnight. In the RS Aero 9s the Solent boys were out front. Ben Clark took the overnight honours with Joe Gallivan in second place.

Sunday was light and local knowledge predicted a sea breeze due to come in an hour before England kicked off. The race team was spot on again and the breeze did eventually kick in to provide enough momentum over the current for the final two races. These were probably the most challenging of the weekend as the tide was quite strong and rotated 180 degrees between races. Cockerill secured a second and a win in the final race only this time it was Sarah not Steve to move her up the table to fourth overall!

Mark Riddington managed to capitalise in the lighter airs along with Tim Norris to secure two good results. Chris Jones after having had a worrying result in race five pulled a rabbit of the hat in race six going inshore (against the local view of the direction of the current) and finished third to give him third place overall. Steve Cockerill this time having secured a win in race five had done enough to secure the win with Steve Norbury continually challenging the Cockerill's at the front.

In the RS Aero 9 fleet one day visitor, Tim Hire, won both races on the Sunday with Fernando firmly in his wake. Overall Ben Clark had done enough to take the crown (or model hull to be more precise) with Fernando in second. A big thank you to the Lee On Solent team who laid on a great event which was enjoyed by all and to Fernando and Raptor Naval Architecture for the excellent 3D printed replica RS Aero trophies!

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7 Rig Results:

Pos	Sail	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	2319	Steve Cockerill	Stokes Bay SC	-2	1	1	1	1	2	6
2	2543	Steve Norbury	Warsash SC	1	2	2	2	3	-4	10
3	1817	Chris Jones	Sutton Bingham SC	6	3	3	4	-8	3	19
4	2320	Sarah Cockerill	Stokes Bay SC	4	7	-10	6	2	1	20
5	2553	Mark Riddington	Emsworth Slipper SC	7	8	-9	3	4	5	27
6	1232	Tim Norris	Warsash SC	-9	9	5	5	5	6	30
7	2427	Nigel Rolfe	Lymington Town SC	8	4	4	7	-10	8	31
8	1562	Toby Schofield	Felpham SC	5	5	7	8	6	-9	31
9	2572	Andy Hill	Warsash SC	3	6	8	10.5	9	-11	36.5
10	2621	Liam Vass	Felpham SC	13	10	6	10.5	13	(DSQ)	52.5
11	2518	Nick Ireland	Stokes Bay SC	10	11	11	9	12	(DNC)	53
12	2502	Peter Chaplin	Burghfield SC	-12	12	12	12	11	7	54
13	2293	Caroline Martin	Lee on Solent SC	11	13	14	(DNC)	7	10	55
14	2112	Mark Warwick	Lee on Solent SC	14	-15	13	13	14	12	66
15	1119	Peter Warburton	Lee on Solent SC	-15	14	15	14	15	13	71
16	1708	Chris Cousins	Lee on Solent SC	16	16	(RET)	DNC	DNC	DNC	86
17	2542	Chris Hughes	Warsash SC	17	(RET)	RET	DNC	16	DNC	87

9 Rig Results:

Pos	Sail	Helm	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	2112	Ben Clark	Lee on Solent SC	2	1	2	1	-4	4	10
2	2114	Fernando Gamboa	Lee on Solent SC	1	(RET)	1	6RET	2	2	12
3	1336	Joe Gallivan	Spinnaker SC	-3	2	3	2	3	3	13
4	2223	Mark Fox	Stokes Bay SC	4	3	4	3	-6	6	20
5	1566	Tim Hire	Royal Lymington YC	(DNC)	7DNC	7DNC	7DNC	1	1	23
6	2125	Paul Atkinson	Lee on Solent SC	5	4	(RET)	6RET	5	5	25