RS Aero UK National Championships at Hayling Island Sailing Club - Day 0

Challenge Cup supported by Harken on 'day 0' of the RS Aero UK National Championships © RS Aero UK Class Association

Racing is under way at the 2021 RS Aero UK Nationals with a whopping fleet of 140 RS Aeros signed up and looking forward to a fun week hosted at Hayling Island Sailing Club. A mixed forecast looks set to provide good racing with for opportunities for everyone to shine.

Wednesday was a chilled warm up day for the main event. In the morning UK Class Training Coordinator Sammy Isaacs-Johnson delivered a coaching session ashore, sharing the lessons learnt over the Class' seven years to help those new to the Class and to championship racing.

Later in the afternoon the fleet set out for the RS Aero Challenge Cup supported by Harken, an all RS Aero trophy/practice race with Class starts but an overall average lap PY results sheet. With the breeze increasing from lightish to fruity the RS Aero 7s packed out the top of the leader board with Tim Hire (Lymington) laying down his marker ahead of Craig Williamson (Staunton Harold) and Jack Miller (Felpman) in third (after a scoring query).

Challenge Cup supported by Harken on 'day 0' of the RS Aero UK National Championships - photo © RS Aero UK Class Association

Top RS Aero 9 was Chris Larr (Draycote) in ninth, and first RS Aero 5 was Andrew Frost (Sutton Bingham) in 14th. Ladies made a play at the front with Ellie Craig (Starcross) tenth in her RS Aero 7 and Sasha Tydeman 23nd in her RS Aero 5. Top Youths were Sam Brackley (Felpham) sixth in his RS Aero 7 and Tom Ahlheid (17th) in his RS Aero 5.

A fun focus of the UK Champs annually is the Club and Family Champs are both set to be hotly contested this year with the large entry. The Club Champs requires the top three sailors' overall rankings from each club. For the Family Champs the top two from a family household are taken.

This year twelve clubs qualify and are in the hunt with at least three sailors. Lymington Town is a regular contestant in the club stakes but this year the incredible home team Armada of 33 RS Aeros from Hayling will prove a formidable force. Checking Wednesday's Challenge Cup results keep an eye on Felpham's large team of ten after they smashed in a 3, 6, 11...

Challenge Cup supported by Harken on 'day 0' of the RS Aero UK National Championships - photo © RS Aero UK Class Association

In the Family Champs 15 teams contest the family title, with Team Ahlheid and Wharmby hedging their bets, both with three family competitors! Last year's champions and runners up teams were both made up of siblings (no parents required!) and both the Hires and Halls return this year to contest the title again. To equate the three different sized fleets an approximate multiplier will be applied as necessary.

Thanks to the support of Rooster, Selden, RS Sailing and Harken the championships enjoys an excellent spread of goodie prizes with daily awards. Sailors can only win a daily award once each and the leaders need to past on their top tip on how they did it!

'Drinks for Tallies' is already proving popular as a prompt tallying incentive with RS Sailing on Wednesday and today, Thirsty Thurstday, is hosted by Selden Mast.

See www.rsaerosailing.org or www.hisc.co.uk/sailing/open-events/rs-aero-nationals

Challenge Cup supported by Harken on 'day 0' of the RS Aero UK National Championships - photo © RS Aero UK Class Association

Challenge Cup supported by Harken:

Challenge Cup supported by Harken on 'day 0' of the RS Aero UK National Championships - photo © RS Aero UK Class Association