RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - Days 1 & 2

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta © Paul DuVangon

Day 1 (by Roger Phillips - Arcus 2.1)

The Race committee positioned the fleet in the middle of the sunny and picturesque Torbay, giving the 2026 RS21 National fleet the best possible chance of finding the best wind in the light and shifty conditions for Race One of the championship.

Starting after a one hour delay into 5 fickle knots, the 21's fought for the favoured shifts and those that found them accelerated, leaving the unlucky ones in their wake. Team Arcus, newly branded, played the centre right and got to the top mark with a lead with Dark&Stormy, defending champions in hot pursuit. The wind had now clocked, making the downwind leg a drag race and Team Arcus were somewhat relieved to see the shortened course flag (barely) flying and sailed through to take the win. No mistakes by Dark&Stormy gave them 2nd and Team Tiga Tiga rounded off the top 3.

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - photo © Paul DuVangon

Race 2

The wind had built slightly to 7knots and clocked right, as predicted by the forecast and stabilised enough for the second start. Boats fought to control the right and those that did, found more of the ladders and less of the snakes in what was turning into a very tricky race course. Chop was thankfully low, which meant the boats were all evenly matched and the fleet compressed into tightly packed bunch at the buoys leading to some rekindling of cross boat relationships played out in somewhat slower motion than normal!

The same three boats read the conditions the best but decided to interchange places to keep things close. Dark&Stormy took the lead, opening their defence of the title strongly, followed by Tiga Tiga and Arcus.

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - photo © Paul DuVangon

Race 3

The wind continued to obey the forecast and continued to walk further right, allowing the fleet to experience different scenery of the bay. Those that went hardest right were left unrewarded though as smaller left shifts were still out there to be had, giving the tightly matched fleet plenty of opportunity to get back in to a top spot or loose any early gains by the time that the finish line came at the end of lap two. Downwind speed was often a game changer and those that could work the chop and the patchy gusts profited, picking up places on the final downwind leg.

Tiga Tiga took the lead and with Dark&Stormy coming in 3rd, both boats completed the day with a position on every spot of the podium. The RS works boat with their bandit crack team and branding promoting the 2027 RS21 Worlds in Weymouth made an appearance in 2nd spot, showing ominous speed and decision making.

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - photo © Paul DuVangon

Teams returned to the marina for a dock party to share stories, compare sun tans and generally enjoy the RS21 fun loving culture.

Roll on Day 2, with rumours suggesting it may well turn into a four race epic.

Day 2 (by Dave Exley, Exhale)

The order for today was to sail 4 races in a light - moderate E-SE with clear blue Torbay sky.

The windward mark for the first race was set looking upwind towards Thatcher Rock and the sea state was still light. Exhale took an early lead heading left towards the shore closely followed by Saucy Sue and Dark and Stormy. On the next beat Exhale went left again but a nice right shift at the top of the beat enabled Saucy Sue, Dark and Stormy, Tiga Tiger and RS Sailing to take the lead. Dark and Stormy took the win, followed by Saucy Sue and Exhale scrambled third.

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - photo © Paul DuVangon

The wind shifted to the right for the next race, the wave state was increasing dramatically and also the wind seemed softer away from the shore. Everything was getting very "sticky". The race got away cleanly, but a significant right shift up the first beat caused the race to be abandoned and re-started. This was a huge benefit to the author, as shortly after the start he had to drop all sails and climb the mast to view race course from the crow's nest.

The next start was a bun fight for the right-hand side with Tiga Tiger, Saucy Sue and RS Sailing making the best of the lanes up the right to finish in that order (sorry for the lack of detail here, but the author went left and struggled to see any thing other than the back of the fleet.

Race 3 for the day got away in an ever-increasing sea state and just keeping the boat up to speed both up and down wind seemed to be of utmost importance. Once again Tiga Tiger won by controlling the right of the beat followed by Saucy Sue and then RS Sailing in third.

RS21 Nationals at the Torbay Royal Regatta - photo © Paul DuVangon

The wind for the final race of the day was at it's strongest and also most Southerly. Once again the fleet tried to protect the right, but this time a group of boats benefitted from a strong left hand shift on boat beats. Saucy Sue made the best of the shifts and with good boat speed took the win from Dark and Stormy and Exhale in third.

To summarise, everyone had moments of magic with the super tight competitive racing and everyone found conditions very 'sticky' at times. The PRO and the race team did another wonderful job to run 4 races.

The forecast for Monday is looking big, so we await with baited breath - will there be racing or not?

Results after Day 2: