RS200 Scottish Tryhard at North Berwick
by Brendan Lynch 13 Jan 2025 13:10 GMT
4-5 January 2025
RS200 Scottish Tryhard © Ben Whaley
The weather was crisp for the first Tryhard of 2025 and fourteen RS200s descended on North Berwick. We were greeted by current national champion Ben Whaley and 10-15kts of breeze. We discussed rig setup and techniques before heading onto the water for some warm up races and blasted the cobwebs away.
After a quick lunch we went back onto the water for some longer tuning runs in marginal planning conditions looking at kicker tensions and body placements downwind. Upwind we discussed sail shapes and rig settings particularly the influence of spreader deflections on the leach profile. Coming back in, Ben showed videos from on the water which crystalised some of the concepts from on the water.
Sunday the wind was up and the waves were punchy making tough conditions for the fleet. Brendan and Ellen narrowly won the first race just ahead of Roo and Morven in the class's newly refurbished demo boat courtesy of Eyemouth Marine. He managed to get them back in race 2 flipping the tables on Brellen. In race 3 Ben's hours of tuning paid off with James and Isobel managing to grab the bullet in their New (to them) boat.
Overall consistency paid in the end for newcomers to the fleet Niamh Harper and Hamish Taylor grabbing 3rd spot at their first RS200 event (in a long time) they will be ones to watch. After the racing Hamish said, "Wow that's the best sailing I've done in my life I need to buy my own boat, you try and stop me!". Just ahead of them was Roo and Morven with Brendan and Ellen stealing the overall win.
A massive thanks goes out to ELYC for hosting the event and all the volunteers who made it possible, as well as the RS Class Association for the Coaching grant. Also Ben for his fascinating insights into the boat and Eyemouth marine for their support of the class. Hope to see everyone at the next event - 15/16 Feb at Helensburgh!