RS200 Inland National Championship at Grafham Water Sailing Club

RS200 Inland National Championship © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Never has a weather forecast for a sailing event proved so accurate and it is difficult to remember when the expression a game of two halves has been so apt.

Several boats that had pre entered were put off by the blustery forecast for Saturday along with the sudden arrival of single figure temperatures. It was still a very good healthy sized fleet of 45 boats that launched and it was also a very strong fleet. With the Endeavour the following weekend there were some crews getting in practice including the return of some RS royalty. Ok pushing it a bit to call Nick Craig royalty but you get the idea!

On the water the conditions were pretty full on. The northerly wind was somewhere between 16 and 22 knots with blustery short bursts into the higher 20's. The wind was by no means uniform over the course; if you hooked into a dark patch early on the run you could make massive gains in a ball of spray whilst boats 5 boat lengths away never moved. The leeward gate was pure entertainment.

RS200 Inland National Championship - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Race Officer Ian Bullock did a great job of turning races around very rapidly to avoid many getting cold. So it was happy and very tired bunch of sailors that headed for the showers in good time after three full length hard races.

Nick Craig/Emma Hivey thrived in the conditions scoring 4.2.1 to be just ahead of Ben Saxton/Izzy Hamilton with Ollie Groves/Esther Parkhurst and James Peters/Emily Anderson in close company. But the class act of the day was Maria Stanley/Alan Roberts leading overall with a 2.1.2 scoreline.

Sunday morning felt a different world with very pleasant sunshine, a lot of blue sky, more Spring like temperatures and 8-10 knot breeze from the west. Whilst breakfast was consumed the breeze was already very slowly easing. The great worry for all over their bacon and coffee was that if the weather forecast was right we were very likely to be looking at a flat calm by midday.

RS200 Inland National Championship - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Race four started in a breeze bordering on 5-6 knots. First half of the season form horses Alistair Norris\Helen Summersgill moved through to take the lead on the second lap and along with Will and Matt Taylor they had a large lead when the race was shortened at the second gate. With the committee boat moored alongside one of the gate marks to do this confusion ruled after the first five boats finished. For many coming in on the starboard lay line the committee boat hid from their view the port gate mark so they went round the starboard gate mark to port and the sought in vain for a finishing buoy. Two thirds of the fleet then did a good sheep impression and followed. After a while some boats who had 'finished' realised the error of their ways unwound themselves and finished correctly whilst many drifted around having confused banter. I think the results took a while to compile!

RS200 Inland National Championship - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Race five started in a very soft breeze that was saying hello to the four knot limit. Tom and Jo Hewitson sailing together for the first time since Jo's leg injury rolled back the years to lead with Ben Saxton for close company. With the fleet on their second beat and many struggling to move the race officer took the decision to abandon the race.

RS200 Inland National Championship - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Ashore looking at a flat calm lake the vast majority had already gone into shrimp alley to wash their boats well before the decision was made at 13.00 to abandon for the day. So ended a very eventful RS200 inlands. With the entire top 5 discarding their result from race four the overnight positions still stood so Maria Stanley/Alan Roberts were RS200 Inland National Champions. Do they start the Endeavour as favourites??

Ollie Groves/Ester Parkhurst were RS200 Youth National Champions and Jamie/Bettine Harris were RS200 Junior National Champions.

Overall Results: