Rooster & West Country Boat Repairs RS400 Southern Tour at Llandegfedd Sailing Club
by Pete Vincent 13 Jul 2021 06:07 BST
10-11 July 2021
Rooster and West Country Boat Repairs RS400 Southern Tour at Llandegfedd - new venue for RS400 events. Don't always believe the forecast!
The RS400s Rooster and West Country Boat Repairs Southern Tour joined the Ugly RS200's at Llandegfedd on July 10th for the first RS400 event at the beautiful rural Welsh venue. The forecast was dire with promise of 2 gusting 4 knots all afternoon which put off many visitors travelling. In fact when we first arrived at the reservoir there was even less wind with the paddle boarders the only thing breaking the glassy water with also that annoying Welsh drizzle.
But by the briefing PRO Mark Williams was able to say there was enough wind to set a course and it was holding uniform over the whole course area. By the time the fleet launched and reached the starting area it was already clear the conditions were much better than we had a right to expect; the sun was out and there was a pretty constant 6-9 knots although as the racing was soon to show there were the special Llandegfedd slants.
Mark and his team then did a first class job of running 4 really decent races with smart turn arounds. As the rest of fleet found ways to do some snakes and ladders racing Steve and Sarah Cockerill made it look very easy and never seemed to be the wrong side of a shift to power into some very handy leads to win the first 3 races. Steve later commented he loves shifty conditions; not half! Then in the final race Sam Knight/Chris Bownes nailed in the start and led the Cockerill's at the first mark for the two to regularly swap positions. Sam and Chris seemed to have settled it just getting water at the final leeward mark with a short beat to the finish but the Cockerill's tacked instantly and just won by the narrowest of margins.
The consistent Graham Tullet/Natasha Bownes claimed 3rd overall. Chris Eames/Rachel Tilley and Pete Vincent/Pete Cruickshank had some good top 3 finishes but could not string together consistent results.
Ashore the content fleet had tea and cakes on the balcony in now glorious late afternoon sunshine pleased they had not listened to the forecast.
Next event on the Rooster and West Country Boat Repairs Southern Tour is the re scheduled Arun open on July 31st/Aug 1st.
Overall Results:
| Pos | Sail No | Helm | Crew | Club | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | Pts |
|---|
| 1 | 1515 | Steve Cockerill | Sarah Cockerill | Lee on Solent | ‑1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 2 | 1376 | Sam Knight | Chris Bownes | Bartley SC | 3 | ‑5 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| 3 | 1277 | Graham Tullet | Natasha Lister | BCYC | 2 | 3 | 3 | ‑4 | 8 |
| 4 | 1292 | Chris Eames | Rachel Tilley | QMSC | 4 | 2 | 5 | ‑8 | 11 |
| 5 | 1356 | Pete VIncent | Pete Cruikshank | Llandegfedd SC | 5 | 4 | ‑7 | 3 | 12 |
| 6 | 1506 | Paul Freeland | Sharon Freeland | Llandegfedd SC | 6 | ‑7 | 4 | 5 | 15 |
| 7 | 1446 | Bill Jackson | Dylan Fletcher | Llandegfedd SC | ‑7 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 19 |
| 8 | 1495 | Simon Collinson | Will Collinson | Llandegfedd SC | ‑9 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 22 |
| 9 | 1313 | Will Willett | Johnny Everett | Llandegfedd SC | 8 | ‑9 | 9 | 9 | 26 |