Rope4Boats RS400 Northern Tour at Notts County Sailing Club

Ricard Catchpole and Matt Sharamann win the RS400 Northern Tour Open at Notts County © David Eberlin

Leeward mark in the RS400 Northern Tour at Notts County © David Eberlin

Early Saturday morning it didn't look promising; light to zero wind and overcast. Was there going to be any racing? Undeterred, the RS400 teams readied themselves and at around 12pm, the allotted start time, the wind appeared.

It wasn't from the direction expected, and kept swinging, but after a short delay the first race was on under the watchful eye of Ken Twemlow, the Race Officer. RS400s use a windward / leeward course started.

The first race in the final of the Rope4Boats series saw Richard Catchpole and Gary Coop from Leigh and Lowton play it safe up the middle of the course to win. The second race, after a black flag start and a few BFD's recorded, saw Chris Pickles and Matt Sharman take the win, and they went on to dominated the rest of the day with another two wins, ultimately giving them the Open. Richard Catchpole sailed a consistent set of races and was second overall after the first day.

A full open event social in the clubhouse, the first for many many months, included the traditional roast dinner and some party games to help the digestion with a late bar to try and blunt the skills of the visitors.

The Sunday racing saw more light wind which caused a 45 minute delay to the start of racing as the RO waited for it to settle. In the meantime the sunshine broke through making it feel like the late Summer's day it was. A big shift on the first race of the day mixed up the front runners, or was it the effects of the late bar? Youngsters Ollie Groves and Sam Walker from Beaver SC sailed a great race to take the first win, while further down the fleet the first Notts County boat was Jonathan Lye and Nicola Webster, closely followed in 7th by Ross Ryan and RS400 newbie from the resident Scorpion fleet John Tailby - apparently he learnt fairly quickly it was a gennaker not a spinnaker! Richard and Gary ended as they'd started to take the win in the final race.

Prizewinners in the RS400 Northern Tour Open at Notts County - photo © David Eberlin

At the prize-giving, the Ropes4Boats sponsorship provided the winners of the raffle, Chris Pickles and Ollie Groves, with a £20 voucher and a £10 voucher. With two discards in play, Chris, sailing with Matt, took the trophy as overall winners. Responding politely to the quip that he'd had a 'shocker' on day 2 he went on to thank the club, the race team and all the competitors for another great event, looking forward to the next event on the Northern tour - the GNAC at Bassenthwaite SC on 25 and 26 September.

Overall Results: