RS300 Inlands and Rooster National Tour event at Whitefriars Sailing Club

Whitefriars SC was host to a fantastic RS300 open on the hottest weekend of the year which began with some training on Friday followed by beers and a barbecue and then two days of racing.

Saturday saw 16 boats start in light fickle conditions with massive shifts and more holes than a connect four board to deal with. The local lightweight, Steven Jones excelled at reading the both the shifts and missing the holes. This along with his excellent boat handling skills and local knowledge made him pretty untouchable with 3 bullets and a 7th. The 7th was due to a dip after being put under some pressure with several boats arriving at the leeward mark together with a last-minute crash gybe required, which sadly ended in a swim. Matt Jenkins was also consistently rapid with three seconds and a first.

RS300 Inlands and Rooster National Tour event at Whitefriars - photo © Ben Heppenstall

After sailing the heat required some serious rehydration, and with free cold Carlsberg lager on tap we all went about this with great vigour. Simon the local chef, barman, rescue boat cox and protest committee member provided us with a great meal topped off with cheese and wine and marsh mallows to toast on a fire pit. And all this was included in the cheap entry fee which like the Carlsberg add, meant this was "probably the best open meeting in the world". At the end of a very social evening, we all staggered back to our tin tents to sleep. Pure luxury.

Sunday saw local 300 sailor Ben Hepenstall take over as race officer for the final two races again in light twitchy conditions. A few people appeared to have hangovers which impaired their judgement and much place changing took place. Will Powel led a few races but then something went wrong. Tom Moore got stuck in the lakes Bermuda triangle hole of no wind when leading and exhaled some very loud expletives that made us all chuckle. Luke South's tiller extension broke, probably as a result of having to tack a million times.

RS300 Inlands and Rooster National Tour event at Whitefriars - photo © Simon Portman

Dave Acres went from 1st to last at the windward mark on the first beat after capsizing when trying to avoid Matt Jenkins who barged in on port with a last second tack onto starboard with no room. Matt did a turn to exonerate himself and finished 2nd. Dave grumpily fought back to 6th after nearly retiring. Mark (Sparky) Newton led a race but forgot which way port was at mark 7.

Going into the last race Matt needed to take Steve down the pan to win and this resulted in some fairly heavy tactics (not normally seen in the 300 fleet) and two protests filed by Matt against Steve. Neither were upheld and Steve went on to reel Dave in to win the last race with Tom finishing 3rd and Matt taking himself down the pan to 10th. So, congratulations to the top three, Steve, Matt and Tom.

RS300 Inlands and Rooster National Tour event at Whitefriars - photo © Simon Portman

It was great to see some new faces with a few local youngsters having a go in the spare 300 class boat. Big thanks to Ben for organising such a great event and for everyone else at Whitefriars for being so welcoming.

Next event on the Rooster National Tour is Snettisham Beach, 16/17 August, with RS300 sailors being invited to sail on Friday 15th August as part of the NW Norfolk Sailing Week.

RS300 Inlands and Rooster National Tour event at Whitefriars - photo © Simon Portman

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