RS800 Rooster National Tour event during Skiff Open at Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy

Weymouth & Portland National Sailing Academy © WPNSA

What a surprisingly good weekend of sailing. It's been a while since your correspondent sailed the 800, having temporarily defected to the B14 ahead of their Europeans and Global champs in June at Royal Torbay, where the 800 National Championships are also being held.

The late decision meant two crews, which worked out well. Alejandra Gutierrez guided me on day 1, in the lighter conditions, which saw a delayed start. It was great to see my old Chew Valley Lake mates Rob Higgins and James Clark (crewed me at an 800 champs at Porthpean many years ago!!) defecting from their 700s to join the fun. And even better to cruise past them downwind to the finish in race 1 (at 65 I need all the small pleasures I can get against the "youngers"! and they got their own back overall), giving us a third behind Tom and Guy, and Monique and Hugh, who would go on to dominate the weekend with a solid set of firsts and seconds respectively.

The racing, however, was tighter than the results suggested, particularly with a two-lap short race format. In Race 2, Alex and Simon, in 1138, took on my mantle of port tack start maestro's impressively clearing the fleet, which also included four B14s, four Laser 4000s, four Cherubs and two ISOs on the start line.

The wind had picked up a bit, and the Chew boys found their sea legs to take third with Jake and John in 803 taking a much-deserved fourth. This just goes to show that you can not only sail pretty much the oldest 800 in existence (reputedly costing 700 of the King's finest pounds!), but also sail it competitively with a Pin Top main.

By race 3, the wind had started to decline, and despite Arky hoping to get 5 races in, that was going to be it for the day.

On Sunday, we were greeted by a 25kt easterly (gusting over 30kts), so Arky wisely delayed the start until the wind had dropped below 20kts at 1 o'clock. Normal service resumed in Race 4 with perfect conditions, flat-out twin-wiring all around, and some interesting wave patterns at the leeward gate.

With Ollie Scrimshaw (who used to sail an 800 with James Penty back in the day) on the wire, we got a tad lucky when Jake on John decided to inspect the underside of the hull just before the finish in Race 4.

In Race 5, Ralph had spotted the Mustos (first start) getting a big port lift halfway up the beat. That meant only one thing: the chance to regain my port tack maestro status, although having clubmate Tony Blackmore (who went on to win the B14s) alongside me made it a little trickier. The wind had picked up a little to be back over 20kts, so ducking the first 800 was a little sketchy, but was achieved, and we blasted out to the starboard lay line. Tom and Monique had blasted out left and came into the first mark just ahead of us. Ollie popped the kite perfectly to protect our third place just ahead of us of Rob and James.

With a big shift and time short for the last race, Arky shortened after one lap. The last race of the day was again full-on, with more action downwind. 1138 and the last remaining Cherub came to blows down the last run. Ralph committed a schoolboy error by not fully checking the boat over, and we sailed the whole race with no spinnaker sheet block on the port side. Hopefully Ollie's arms are still the same length as they were at the start of the race!!

So after a great weekend, Tom and Guy were winners (and second overall on Handicap vs the Mustos and other classes - the lighter conditions did not suit the 800s on Saturday), with Monique and Hugh second, and Rob and James third. Rob, you are going to have to give Tom your phone number as my planned fourth place(!) to avoid writing the race report clearly has not worked!

Thanks to Arky and his race team and all those at WPNSA who helped out. This is a great venue for skiff sailing, although, as the venue for the 2012 Olympics, it is not held in the same esteem as Wembley, Twickenham, or The Olympic Stadium and remains understated on that front.

Overall Results: