RS100s at POSH - RS100 Rooster National Tour
by David Smart 8 Sep 2021 17:18 BST
4-5 September 2021
RS100s at POSH - RS100 Rooster National Tour © Paignton Sailing Club
Weight equalisation has its place, and there are some (heavier) sailors that feel that those that have drunk less beer and eaten fewer pies during lockdown should have a few bags of sugar added to their boat.
With five races in force 2 conditions, the well muscled (well they all say it's muscle) claimed that they were slightly disadvantaged. Again, they would never admit that those that do better could possibly be better sailors. That couldn't possibly be the case.
It was a small but select group of five 100 sailors, who decided to make the trip to the pandemic delayed POSH to get some on the water hours in before the Nationals at Brixham next weekend. Time will tell if gaining some local knowledge will pay dividends.
The five were the Frensham featherweights Gregory (69 kg) and Eplett (80kg - so not quite so featherweight), the Chew heavyweights Smart (86 kg) and Jones - the Steve variety (89kg) and The Gurnard joker Harrison (weight not formally disclosed, but assumed around Chew weights).
The 100s were in the asymmetric fleet with two Vareos, so a small fleet compared to the 50 or so in the non-asymmetric fleet. This meant that they enjoyed a loooooong start line, with lots of room to spread out. So quite why they all insisted on starting on top of each other, generally crowding the pin was a mystery. Harrison worked hard to be OCS in two races (but did go back). One occasion even led to the rather amusing situation of a general recall - for a mere seven boats!
Harrison also contrived to be up to an astonishing second place when approaching the finish in race 3, only to jam his leg under a toe strap and turtle his boat, much to the hilarity of Eplett in close pursuit, whose laugh could be heard in Torquay and Brixham.
Gregory won every race apart from two where he was second. Eplett was second in every race, apart from one that he won and Smart was third in almost every race apart from the one that he won with great wind reading skill (also known as luck).
Suffice to say that the overall result was Gregory first, Eplett second and Smart third with Jones ahead of Harrison who took the wooden spoon. So the first three was identical to the light wind Torquay regatta in June. Is this an omen for the Nationals next week? I suspect that there will be many 100s in Brixham who will try to disrupt this podium lock out.
Many thanks to Paignton for putting on another great event and Noble for their support and sponsorship.