RS400 Scottish Tour and Northern Tour at Tynemouth Sailing Club

Tynemouth Sailing Club RS400 Open © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

Two roads diverged of a summer weekend,
And sorry that we couldn't travel both
with just one RS400, long we pondered:
While Warsash promised many boats a-crewing,
We knew that Tynemouth was sponsored by Stewart Brewing.

And so it was that 7 RS400s arrived on the Tynemouth Sailing Club beach for the combined Scottish Tour / Northern Tour RS400 + RS200 super-event of 21st / 22nd June. The forecast and the locals promised wall-to-wall sunshine and a pristine Force 3-4 for Saturday, with a touch more on Sunday. Little did the fleet know quite what weather they would actually get...

Race 1 got under way ever so slightly late, after the entire fleet misjudged the distance and the race officer was forced to recall everyone. On attempt nr2 McLellan/Marshall won the committee boat end and dominated the first leg... Until the kicker gave up near the windward mark, and Neil McLellan (who had vowed never to do such a thing) was forced to hike for two while Bosun Marshall made hasty repairs. The snafu opened the door to the waiting fleet, where 4 boats wasted no time in capitalising on their misfortune. It was Stewart + Sarah Robertson, Jacob + Kayleigh Ainsworth, and Justin Smith + Sarah Batchelor who kept the battle extremely close, with regular place changes right to the bitter end, where the Ainsworths won out.

Race 2 saw a fast-developing tide, steadily dropping wind, and rapidly deteriorating storm clouds driving the right hand side of the course to be strongly favoured. The Robertsons showed their characteristic speed to reach the windward mark first, and never looked back all the way to a bullet at the finish.

Tynemouth Sailing Club RS400 Open - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

The wind dropped further for race 3, and all boats switched to their lightest wind modes. Going right and tucking under the sea wall before a last minute dash into the rushing tide became the name of the game. The Robertsons kept it clean throughout to take another first, but competition was nail bitingly close in the following pack with a bad mark rounding costing Andrew Brown + Catherine Harrison dearly, dropping from 2nd to 4th, although perhaps the upset faded when this put them in prime position for the dolphins appearing. Then, with 3 races in the bag and the wind shutting down altogether, the fleet headed ashore for takeaway in the club house, and beach entertainment put on by a local jet-ski enthusiasts and the weekend's thunder and lightning.

Sunday dawned with things looking 'reasonably fresh'. Sufficiently fresh that only 5 boats opted to hit the water, with a further 2 lost to attrition before the start of race 4. For the remaining 3 brave souls, what followed was two white-knuckle, top-gun races where the steady were rewarded, and the careless could lose it all as the boat went down the mine.

Brown/Harrison led a stonking first lap in R4 with untouchable upwind pace, before a risky mark approach and drop ended with them swimming and McLellan/Marshall cruising past to a win, closely followed by Team Ainsworth.

Tynemouth Sailing Club RS400 Open - photo © Tim Olin / www.olinphoto.co.uk

With the breeze shifting and the pin more favoured for R5, the entire fleet attempted to port flyer each other, thus negating the spectacle of the move. But it was McLellan/Marshall who led off the blocks and kept it all the way to the 2nd leeward mark, where an inadvertently deployed sea-anchor sent the bow under, the stern skyward, and the finish place to the back. The Ainsworths were too close to miss their chance and sailed on to another race win in the blustery conditions.

Alas, the effort had proved too much at this stage for all but Brown/Harrison, who remained alone for R6 and proved they could endure longer than all others (except for the RS200s, who remained at full strength much to the shame of the senior fleet).

After all scores were added up, it was Jacob and Kayleigh Ainsworth who took top honours for the weekend having never finished further back than second. Andrew Brown and Catherine Harrison came second overall, with Neil McLellan and Angus Marshall following in third. Trident kindly sponsors the RS400 Northern Tour, with their prizes awarded to John Pitkethly and Matthew McFarlane, Stewart and Sarah Robertson, and Sven Richards and Richard Fahey.

Tynemouth Sailing Club RS400 Open - photo © Tynemouth Sailing Club

Many thanks to Tynemouth Sailing Club for putting on a spectacular event both on and off the water, and many thanks to Northern Tour sponsors Trident and Scottish Tour sponsors Stewart Brewing for their generous support.

In keeping with current reporting fashions, your correspondent has composed some verse to commemorate the weekend:

I've heard people say 'Tynemouth is mental!',
But on Saturday, the breeze was quite gentle.
Jacob and Kayleigh were fast,
And Sunday was a blast,
But the pints you ask? They're 'accidental'...

Overall Results: