Trident UK RS400 Northern Tour at Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club

Trident UK RS400 Northern Tour at Yorkshire Dales © Paul Hargreaves Photography

Yorkshire Dales Sailing Club hosted the sixth leg of the RS400 Northern Tour over the weekend of 23-24 July 2022. The competitors arrived to find that the tide was out, the usually sizeable reservoir had shrunk considerably due to the lack of rain, but fortunately a south westerly breeze prevailed over the two days which allowed the race officer to set some pretty decent courses.

The event was as usual well organised with some excellent race management allowing a seven-race series to be completed with everyone off the water at 1pm on Sunday.

The series got under way with four races on Saturday in a reasonably steady force 2, Chris Pickles & Matt Sharman took an early lead which they continued to extend throughout the race taking line honours from Ollie Groves & Sam Waller with Stuart Hallam & Anna Walsh in third.

The pattern was set - the next three races were won by Pickles & Sharman with Groves & Waller second in each. The rest of the fleet enjoyed some close racing with Mike Saul & Oliver Kent showing that when they launched with the rest of the fleet, they were competitive taking third place in race 2 and it was Barrie Thornton & Nick Hunt's turn to take third place in races 3 and 4.

The competitors enjoyed some wonderful catering on Saturday evening followed by the usual socialising and exchange of stories from the day and previous events, followed by for those camping a restless night's sleep after the wind started to blow.

Trident UK RS400 Northern Tour at Yorkshire Dales - photo © Paul Hargreaves Photography

Sunday's race format was three back-to-back races, same wind direction as Saturday but a couple of forces higher which made for some great sailing. There were multiple capsizes, some great downwind legs and some close racing.

Sunday's racing got under way with Pickles & Sharman taking an early lead in race 5 from Groves & Waller. It was, however, Groves & Waller that took line honours with Ben Williamson & Charlie Ticehurst taking third place.

Groves & Waller won the next two races with Pickles & Sharman in pursuit. As was the case on Saturday the racing for the minor places was competitive with Thornton & Hunt securing third, ahead of Williamson & Ticehurst and Hallam & Walsh.

Chris Pickles after the prize-giving thanked YDSC for hosting a well-run enjoyable event. Thanks also go to Trident UK for sponsoring the series and providing vouchers to add to the plentiful array of prizes on offer.

Trident UK RS400 Northern Tour at Yorkshire Dales - photo © Paul Hargreaves Photography

Note for the diary - leg 7 of the RS400 Northern Tour will be at Notts County SC 11-12 June, we hope to see you there.

There is a Photo Gallery from Paul Hargreaves.

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