RS700 Inland Championships 2025 at Chew Valley Lake Sailing Club in 2026

RS700 Inlands 2025 at Chew Valley Lake in 2026 © Arky Wainwright

Starting off the 2026 sailing calendar, the RS700s pulled into Chew Valley Sailing Club for the last event of 2025 - the rescheduled 2025 Inland Championships.

The lake welcomed a slim roster of sailors who were keen and ready to prove that they still knew how to handle the boat after the 2025 Nationals and to welcome a newcomer to the class - Tyler Lightbody.

As boats were rigged and wetsuits were prepared. Tyler had the misfortune to discover a problem with the deck join of his boat, probably caused by an unfortunate bounce on the way to the event, which caused him to have to retire even before the boat touched the water. The rest of us were not so lucky. We had no excuses to abandon ship.

Boats were launched, and we awaited the starting gun of Race 1 with a feeble 5-8knts of wind blowing from a few shifty spots around the lake.

Off went the starting whistle and Rob, the reigning Inland champion, was already away leading from the pin end. Nathan Steffenoni, who managed to get a cheeky hook on Simon Hawes just before the starting gun, was hunting down Rob with Matt Connor, our Class Chairman, and Steve Carr right behind them.

"Light winds... look ahead," - there comes the first shift - Nat opts to tack first, leading Rob out to the windward mark. However, after opting to luff Rob up beyond any sound sailing logic, Matt took advantage of Nat's reluctance to let Rob pass and crept into the first windward mark in front of the pack.

As the breeze went right on the downwind leg, Matt proceeded to try and infiltrate the RS100 and RS400 fleets and having got in a luffing game of his own with a 400, left the door open for Rob to charge past and take the lead of the race.That marked the order of the finish with Rob holding on to the lead and Matt staying in second with Nat closing out the first race in 3rd.

RS700 Inlands 2025 at Chew Valley Lake in 2026 - photo © Arky Wainwright

By now the breeze was dropping. 5 knts turned into 3 with a few light puffs here and there. The RO, prompted by the RS400s taking a start in a drift, decided he had to give it a go, so off we went with R2.

Rob, Matt and Simon got a good start - pin end. Nat and Steve, in the middle of the line, worried that they needed to crash into Rob to slow him down at this event. Rob held his line perfectly as Matt struggled under him, and Simon was trying to stay off his hip.

As the beat seemed like another 'Rob-fest' Nat decided to go right. Time to look for those miracles and pray that the breeze switched off and buried Rob and the boys. By the end of the beat, Rob was in the money at the windward mark, and Nat was buried in a hole somewhere in the middle of the course on the right. "I hope Steve didn't follow me," he thought as prayer turned into desperation while watching Rob, Matt, and Simon pull their kites up and sail right past him.

On that first run, what little breeze was around was spent. Rob sluggishly led his way to the bottom mark with Matt and Simon hot at his heels, hoping that one of the famous Chew Lake Pike would jump out of the water and smack Rob in the face to slow him down.

By the time Nat made his way to the leeward mark, the leading trio were already halfway up the beat but in an oily mine field of patchy breeze.

The leaders battled to hold their line against each other, going up the left, and allowed Nat to make his comeback as a bit of breeze seemed to materialise out of nowhere at the lower end of the course. Straight legs and flat wiring for the first time, Nathan suddenly found himself overtaking Simon and right behind Matt, Rob and the windward mark.

Matt got his kite up in a jiffy as Nathan tried his best to roll him, but Matt was having none of that. Clipped in and coming up high, Matt defended aggressively, and Nat gave in quickly, gybing out. All the while, Rob was whistling away into the distance for his second win of the day.

The heat was getting to Matt after that staunch defence, and he decided that a quick victory swim was in order after forcing Nat to gybe. Simon sailed past him with an ear-to-ear smile and tried not to laugh too hard.

As Rob finished in the distance and Nathan (having sailed like a plonk all day) was happy to take a modest second, while Simon, cheering Matt's swimming skills, came 3rd.

RS700 Inlands 2025 at Chew Valley Lake in 2026 - photo © Arky Wainwright

Right, that's enough of that, Race 3 and the last one for the day.

It was all on! Rob was playing defence, Nathan was attacking, Matt was pissed off, and Simon was just waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Steve, on the other hand, was just hoping we all just sailed each other off the lake again.

The whistle goes off - Rob and Nat come off the start line on the pin end with height and speed. Matt stayed glued to Nats' hip, and Simon was eager to try to roll Matt. We all held our lines; there was no quarter to be given. The subtle movements of our rudders and the constant in-and-out, off-the-wire-on-the-wire were nail biting. Who was going to cock this one up first?

Turns out, cheeky Simon hit a patch of breeze from behind and was flat wiring above Rob and Nat, positioning himself firmly in the lead as the fleet approached the lay line. Rob, hits the fresh breeze first and pulls a few boat lengths away. He tacks. Nat senses an opportunity and tries a dirty tack on top...

Nope, Rob was not getting into this stupid luffing battle again. He puts the bow down and promptly pulls away, just taking Simon's stern but ensuring he would make the windward mark first.

Clearly irritated that Rob doesn't want to dance, Nat tries to keep up but doesn't know how to...

The windward mark positions Rob, Nat, Simon, Matt and Steve.

At this point, the breeze was, by some freak of nature, quite consistent at 5-8knts with few shifts that would change the fleet. Even a "Hail Mary" split attempted by Nat at the leeward mark for the second beat brought the leaders into a processional finish to close out day 1.

So, Rob was proving that his new boat, number 1020, was able to keep up with his sailing prowess, and the rest of the fleet felt that the cobwebs needed to be shaken off if we were to give the local boy some competition.

RS700 Inlands 2025 at Chew Valley Lake in 2026 - photo © Arky Wainwright

Day 2 was a reminder of the 2025 Nationals. 18 gusting 35knts. Shifts that looked like they could topple a car. Only Matt could be seen smiling. This was his weather. The rest of the fleet just felt like bribing the RO to call it off. Nope, not happening! The Chew crew were a well-oiled machine, and they were not going to be dissuaded. Racing would start on time!

The brave souls from the RS100 and RS700 fleets were launching and very quickly introducing themselves to the fish that lay under the water in the lake. The 700 flag went up - "OK, racing is happening." Matt, Rob and Nat were the only ones who were near the start line to realise that the gun had gone off and Race 4 had begun.

Matt was loving it! Flat wiring, legs straight (at last) and the spray that blinded you - was exactly why he bought a 700 in the first place. Rob and Nat were putting on a brave face.... They both just wanted the nightmare to be over without breaking their boats.

First windward mark: Matt in the lead, Rob surprisingly right behind him, and Nat just hoping he wouldn't have to fix a broken mast after the event. Bear away, kites ready to hoist..... Oh hell no!!! We all chickened out!

So it's just about keeping the mast pointing upwards... easy.

Over goes Rob in the middle of the downwind leg. Legendary wipe-out, First victim! Nat giggles and all of a sudden thinks, "I might not be third overall and have to write this report after all." He is flat-wiring downwind off the back of the boat without the kite up. "What's the worst that could happen?" (you can see where this is going...)

Gust on, down goes another one. Nat pitch-poles and performs a wonky swan dive off the top rack, missing the mainsail by inches. In the meantime, Rob can be seen righting his boat with a smile and twinkle in his eye.

Now, the 700 fleet has a great sense of fairness because what happened next was Matt going over just to make sure that Rob and Nat couldn't use a capsize as an excuse for losing the race. At this point, it was obvious that Rob and Nat were missing the required number of pies to power their race properly. Rob seemed to somehow make his way to the leeward mark in the lulls and turn the corner behind Matt for the second beat towards glory, while Nat was finding it a bit more challenging to convince his boat that the mast points upwards regardless of the wind direction.

To cut another 15mins of a repetitive capsizing short, Nat retired and watched Rob take another swim before Matt powered through the course showing off his skills hoping that the Race officer would start the next race quickly before the remaining sailors out on the lake started throwing things at the committee vessel in protest. At this stage, the committee vessel was having problems of its own. The wind had picked up and was so violent that the anchor could not hold, no matter how much chain they let out. Ultimately, to Matt's dismay and Rob's relief, racing was abandoned, and the rest of the racing was called off.

It was over! Rob was champion again, Matt - our Chairman proved to be a master of the fleet with the breeze, and Nat got stuck writing this report. Simon packed up, happy to have kicked off his sailing season with a show of great speed, and Steve proved he was capable of launching and sailing in every condition, taking on some of the bigger fish of the fleet.

A memorable Inlands and a perfect start to an exciting season ahead!

Thank you to Chew Valley Sailing Club for all your efforts, hospitality and wonderful sailing team. The 700s always feel right at home in your amazing venue.

Congratulations to Rob once again for a great victory. Next year, we will remember to hide your bung properly!

Finally, thank you to Rooster for sponsoring our National Tour and providing great prizes. The next event on the Rooster National Tour is at Stokes Bay Sailing Club in April - we're looking forward to it!

Overall Results: