Rooster Zest RS400 Southern Tour Sprints at Queen Mary Sailing Club
by Sean Cleary 18 Apr 15:53 BST
Rooster Zest RS400 Southern Tour Sprints at Queen Mary © Sean Cleary
Day 1 of the Rooster Zest Southern tour sprints started off with quite light winds and some rain clouds popping around the course. A M-shaped course right up against the windward side of the reservoir to keep things interesting.
The round robin series got under way with good racing throughout the fleet. Six races were run with no place safe from front to back and the entire fleet finishing within a minute or so. The evening included a visit to a moderately priced curry house follow by a pint or five by the Thames river.
Day 2 got under way in much steadier conditions, so much so that the M-shaped course from the previous day was still true!.
Today the fleets were split into gold and silver and the scoreboard reset. In the gold fleet the battle for first was between the Sam/John Knight and Mike Simms/Jack Holden. Despite the Knights taking the first race, Mike/Jack found their form to take four straight bullets and win the gold fleet with Sam in second.
The battle for third was between Caroline Whitehouse/Tony and Sean Cleary/Richard Ashwell. Caroline showed improving pace throughout the day (including two second place finishes at the end) to take third.
In the silver fleet, newcomers Pete Mitchell and Sarah Newton showed great pace to take the win! It is widely expected this paring should be gold fleet contenders in the coming events. Andy Hatch and Lou Hosken also showed great pace taking three wins in the silver fleet. However, an OCS for them in race 5 meant they had to settle for second place.
QMSC and its race team did a great job getting a M-shaped course to work in very shifty conditions.
Many thanks to Rooster and Zest for their continued support and sponsorship of the RS400 Southern tour.
Next up is the Rutland RS Sprints on the 27/28 April followed by the highly anticipated Warsash RS400 open/party!
RS Southern Tour events: www.rs400.org/index.asp?Fleet=RS400&selection=Events
Overall Results:
| Pos | Fleet | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | Pts |
|---|
| 1st | Gold | 1488 | Mike Sims | Jack Holden | Carsington SC / Itchenor SC | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 |
| 2nd | Gold | 1202 | Sam Knight | John Knight | Bartley SC | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 18 |
| 3rd | Gold | 1414 | Caroline Whitehouse | Tony Cliff | Bartley SC | 3 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 19 |
| 4th | Gold | 1377 | Sean Cleary | Richard Ashwell | Greystones SC | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 23 |
| 5th | Gold | 1399 | Richard Gray | Jules Thorne | Queen Mary SC | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 26 |
| 6th | Gold | 1220 | John Cooper | Andy Maw | Burghfield SC | 4 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 32 |
| 1st | Silver | 1334 | Pete Mitchell | Sarah Newton | Warsash | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| 2nd | Silver | 1418 | Andy Hatch | Lou Hosken | Queen Mary SC | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 | OCS | 1 | 19 |
| 3rd | Silver | 1078 | Pete Jackson | Dave Phillips | Silver Wings SC | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 20 |
| 4th | Silver | 1435 | Matthew Sheahan | Ellie Sheahan | Queen Mary SC | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 21 |
| 5th | Silver | 1342 | Max Tosetti | Izzie Mitchell | Queen Mary SC | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
| 6th | Silver | 1233 | Nick Francis | Simon Edwards | Queen Mary SC | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 32 |