RS100 Rooster National Tour at the Lymington Dinghy Regatta

Smart rounds the leeward mark on Sunday after 2 swims and some bottom trawling © Tristan Jones / Nautipics

Regret and satisfaction are the emotions most prevalent during a regatta. You regret the poor decisions and are overjoyed with satisfaction when you get things right. These emotions can be felt regularly during every race and even during one manoeuvre.

Let's explore them during the regatta...

Mike Green had most to be satisfied about, winning all three races on Saturday as the wind rose up the Beaufort scale from a 2 to a 4. He was also in his element in the growing chop and getting the timing of his tack out into the tide for the windward rounding. Meanwhile, Clive Eplett regretted getting that timing wrong, leaving it too late and conceding 10s if not 100s of metres every time.

Clive's regrets continued in Race 2 when he 'met' an RS400. Nevertheless, Clive had the satisfaction of knowing he was in the right, as his language testified.

Ian Gregory regretted his uncharacteristic poor starting, which left him mountains to climb to get to the front while battling the dirty wind of the 400 fleet. He was very satisfied in winning the heavy wind race on Sunday, especially as he was the lightest in the fleet (and by some margin on Sunday!) Mostyn Evans was delighted to pip Gregory at the finish in Race 3. The fleet had never seen Mostyn hiking so hard upwind to beat Ian in a photo finish. His beer that evening tasted so sweet!

Darrell Sleep was pleased to get the better of Mostyn in the first race, but wished his mast had stayed upright in the flowing races.

Mark Harrison's regret was that he hadn't checked his slot gasket, which led to his early homecoming. However he was delighted that, despite this handbrake, he still beat Smart in race 2.

David Smart was satisfied with his lovely new suit of sails, but regretted using them on Saturday as he could not understand his slow speed upwind. He should have checked his rig settings for the first two races as when he raked his mast back for the last race, he suddenly found his boatspeed.

There was a vast amount of procrastination on Sunday as the wind gods gave a hearty morning welcome. After a couple of postponements only Smart and Gregory launched and enjoyed a champagne sail to the start. While Smart sailed well up the beat, and loved the first spinnaker reach, he regretted his gybe which led to a very lengthy swim, while watching Gregory sail off in the distance. Hindsight said he should have dropped the kite and tacked round. However, he was overjoyed that he hadn't used his new sails.

Congratulations to Mike Green for winning the RS100's at 2025 Rooster Lymington Dinghy Regatta. And a massive thank you to Lymington for hosting such a great event.

Smart and Gregory made up the podium for the Sunday race - photo © RS Class Associations

Overall Results:

The fleet will next come together for the Noble Marine Nationals from 25 to 28 September at the iconic Mounts Bay, where a large fleet is already entered. Don't regret not entering... Let's make it an event to remember, so everyone leaves satisfied!