RS400 Rope4Boats Northern Tour finale at Notts County Sailing Club

Rounding the windward mark in light winds during the RS400 Northern Tour finale at Notts County © David Eberlin

RS400 Northern Tour finale at Notts County © David Eberlin

The RS400 Rope4Boats Northern Series had its final event at Notts County's RS400 Rooster Open event over the weekend of 22nd and 23rd September. Storm Ali and friends had made the forecast frightening at times. Thankfully, the extreme winds predicted didn't appear. In their place Saturday saw much calmer conditions, the first cold spell for some time and, not only that, it rained!

This didn't stop the 31 boat entry, some travelling from afar, launching on time to commence a day of tense, tactical sailing. The first race was held in a light breeze. The Race Officer, Nadina Lincoln, set a trapezoid course to suit the lake. After an inevitable general recall the fleet set off and had a good hour long race before lunch. The course, well briefed beforehand, was still a mystery to most even as they launched, but the beat, reach to a leeward windward leg before reaching back to the gate soon made sense with only one (who shall remain nameless) managing to miss a mark in the first race.

After lunch it was two back-to-back races in a fading wind, and rain. With no one dominating in the fickle wind the scores were all very close for the top positions. The competitors were happy to get under hot showers and have a cup of tea and a doughnut before moving seamlessly onto the gin, the odd pint or two and Pauline's roast dinner followed by a rules quiz run by Nadina. High scores in the quiz were not apparent, even though the posed situations were all typical for RS asymmetric racing and those at the top of the sailing leader board maintaining their low scoring runs! A late bar, a Chinese game – thanks Kathryn – and quite a lot of dodgy shots – made for a good social, all in all.

Sunday's forecast was for a shift round to the North and an increasing breeze. The early start saw light winds for the first race, but at least the sun appeared taking the chill off the day. The breeze did fill in as predicted and two final, longer, races were held around the RO's preferred trapezoid course, which we had all managed to master by now, with tight racing across the whole fleet. Very little, points wise, separated the top 4 but in the end Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman held on, even having to do penalty turns after the last gybe mark, for a win in the last race and overall victory.

Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman during the RS400 Northern Tour finale at Notts County - photo © David Eberlin

The smooth operation put on by the race team meant that the scheduled three races for the day were completed in time for everyone to get ashore to enjoy a late lunch before the Rooster sponsored prize giving, Chris and Matt taking home the Notts County RS400 Open trophy for a second successive year. Full results can be seen below.

So, the final event of the Rope4Boats Northern Tour. A really well supported series that has seen 85 boats take part over seven events hosted across the region. Dave Exley presented a set of prizes to the top 5 boats in the series – the full results will be available to see on the RS400 Class Association website. Matt Velamail and Dave Exley won Rope4Boats vouchers in the fleet raffle. Conveniently, Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman were the final overall winners – that result only due to them winning the Notts County event – earning them some very nice Rope4Boats tapered jib sheets and also meaning they could do a joint acceptance speech to thank all the clubs involved, the series sponsors, Rope4Boats, and the Notts County team for hosting the concluding event.

Reflections during the RS400 Northern Tour finale at Notts County - photo © David Eberlin

We all look forward to another competitive and well supported 2019 Rope4Boats RS400 Northern Tour.

Overall Results: