Noble Marine RS400 Nationals 2026: Runners & Riders
by Sam Knight 29 Aug 16:23 BST
10-13 September 2026
Edd Whitehead and Ben Whaley © Tania Hutchings /
www.50northphotography.co.uk
Hayling Island set for a heavyweight RS400 showdown
There are few better places to settle a dinghy sailing argument than Hayling Island. From 10-13 September, Hayling Island Sailing Club welcomes the RS400 fleet for the 2026 Noble Marine National Championship, with four days and ten races scheduled to decide the class champion. The entry list is a particularly tasty one: established RS400 specialists are joined by Olympic sailors, National Champions and some of the fastest sailors from across the RS Classes.
Picking a winner is going to be difficult.
The RS400 has always rewarded a combination of speed, consistency and good decision-making, and with a long championship series ahead, simply winning races won't be enough. The winner will need to survive the inevitable difficult race, keep the boat moving when the breeze disappears, and make the right calls when Hayling's tide and shifting breeze get involved.
Here are the teams we think could be fighting it out at the sharp end:
Sam Knight & Chris Bownes
Writer/Prompter of this article.
It's probably best to get this one out of the way first.
This partnership has been at the front of the RS400 fleet for years, but after the glory days of the early 2020's Championship success has proved difficult to recapture. Until now...(maybe).
Four years on from their last gasp victory in 2022, the pair remain one of the fastest and most experienced combinations in the fleet. They know how to win an RS400 race, but just as importantly they know how to win a championship. If Hayling delivers the sort of breeze and waves that reward athletic sailing, Knight and Bownes will be very difficult to keep behind. Recent results show an uptick in form, they're holding both the Inland and Southern titles, could this be a return to the top echelons of RS400 sailing?
Watch for: the final day. They have form for making things happen when the pressure is highest.
Tom Halhead & Paul Hilliar
The consistency kings.
Tom Halhead and Paul Hilliar have arguably been the form combination of the recent RS400 circuit.
They have developed into one of the class's most dependable partnerships, capable of winning in a wide range of conditions and, crucially, of putting together a long series without giving away too many big numbers.
The Hayling championship could suit them particularly well. Four days of racing should provide a mixture of conditions, and Halhead and Hilliar have the experience to adapt rather than relying on one particular style of sailing. They are also deeply involved in the RS400 Class Association, giving them an unusually detailed understanding of the boat and the fleet.
The question is not whether they can win races. It is whether they can keep the scorecard clean enough to win ten of them as a championship.
Watch for: the boat that is never far from the front.
Ian & Chris Martin
The class-hopping danger men.
Ian and Chris Martin are not RS400 sailors in the same way as some of the other contenders here — and that might make them even more dangerous.
The Martins have spent years demonstrating their ability to jump between classes and immediately find the sharp end. They bring with them an enormous amount of tactical and championship experience, as well as an understanding of how to extract performance from a two-person dinghy.
They have also already shown that their RS400 pace is very real. This is not a case of two accomplished sailors simply turning up for a change of scenery.
The challenge will be converting that ability into a ten-race Nationals campaign against sailors who spend far more of their time in the 400. If they do, they have every chance of being in the title fight.
Watch for: the tactical decisions. Expect very few unforced errors.
Edd Whitehead & Ben Whaley
The champions.
There is a very simple reason why Edd Whitehead and Ben Whaley cannot be left out of any list of favourites: they know how to win the Nationals.
The pair produced a superb championship-winning performance at the 2024 Nationals, taking five race wins and finishing the final day with a sequence of 1,2,1. That is championship sailing at its best — enough outright speed to win races, combined with the ability to deliver when the pressure is on.
They are back together for Hayling, and that makes them a formidable proposition.
The RS400 fleet has changed considerably since their last Nationals title, but the basic ingredients haven't: a fast helm, an exceptionally experienced crew and a proven ability to put together a championship series.
Nobody will want to give Whitehead and Whaley an early lead.
Watch for: their ability to turn a good championship into a great one on the final day.
Micky Beckett & Ellie Aldridge
The wild card. And what a wild card.
This could be the most fascinating entry on the entire sheet.
Micky Beckett and Ellie Aldridge don't need much introduction outside the RS400 fleet. Both are Olympians, both represented Great Britain at Paris 2024, and between them they bring an extraordinary level of international racing experience to Hayling.
Beckett competed in the ILCA 7 at Paris after establishing himself as one of the world's leading Laser sailors. He won ILCA European Championship gold in 2021, World Championship silver in 2023 and had already secured his Olympic qualification before arriving in Marseille.
Aldridge's CV is even more unusual. She was the first British sailor selected for the new Formula Kite discipline at Paris 2024 after winning the European title in 2023. She subsequently became the inaugural Olympic women's Formula Kite champion, taking gold in Marseille.
Neither is a dedicated RS400 sailor, of course, And that is the great unknown. Unfortunately, Olympic-level sailors tend to learn new boats rather quickly and they bring physical ability, racecraft, starting skills, tactical awareness and an understanding of how to perform under pressure that very few other teams can match. The RS400 may be a different beast from an ILCA or a Formula Kite, but once the five-minute gun goes, many of the fundamental skills remain the same.
If they click with the boat quickly, the established RS400 specialists could have a very serious problem.
Watch for: how quickly they adapt. If they're in the top five after day one, watch out.
Stewart Robertson & Sarah Robertson
Never underestimate the Robertsons.
Stewart and Sarah Robertson are one of those combinations who seem to have been around the front of the RS400 fleet forever — and with good reason.
Their strength is adaptability. They are capable of performing in breeze, waves, tricky shifts and lighter conditions, rather than needing one particular set of circumstances to go their way.
That versatility is hugely valuable at a Nationals. Four days at Hayling could throw almost anything at the fleet, and the Robertsons have the experience to adjust.
They also have serious championship pedigree of their own, including a fourth place at the 2022 Nationals behind Knight/Bownes and Eames/Tilley.
Don't expect them to necessarily dominate the headlines before the first race. But if you look at the results after ten races, there is a good chance you'll find Robertson and Robertson much higher up the leaderboard than many predicted.
Watch for: consistency across the whole wind range.
Tom Morris & Rob Ashman
The home-water outsiders.
This is one of the more intriguing combinations on the entry list.
Tom Morris is better known for his exploits in the RS800, where he has been almost unbeatable at the front of a fleet that demands a very different style of sailing from the RS400. Rob Ashman is similarly comfortable at the sharp end of asymmetric dinghy racing.
And then there is the Hayling factor.
Home advantage gives them potentially useful local knowledge of the venue and its notoriously important relationship between wind, tide and waves.
Morris and Ashman also know each other and the RS Classes well. The RS800 circuit has already shown that both are capable of producing blistering speed in an asymmetric boat; the question is how quickly they can translate that into the very different rhythm of an RS400 championship.
They are not the obvious favourites — which is precisely why they could be interesting.
Watch for: whether home knowledge turns into an early advantage.
Christopher Eames & Rachel Tilley
The unfinished business.
If there is one team on this list with a genuine score to settle, it is Christopher Eames and Rachel Tilley.
Back in 2022, Eames and Tilley went into the final day of the Nationals in the hot seat. They had done enough over the preceding races to hold the championship lead, with Knight and Bownes needing to find something special.
They did.
Knight and Bownes won the penultimate race to close the gap, then won the final race as well. Eames and Tilley finished 11th, allowing Sam and Chris to overturn the deficit and take the title by five points.
It was one of those championships where the result was decided right at the end — and Eames and Tilley will know exactly how that feels.
They have continued to demonstrate their ability to perform at the front of the class, and were right in the mix at the Southern Championships
Watch for: the final race. Obviously.
Rob Gullan & Jack Holden
The local specialists with serious pace.
Rob Gullan and Jack Holden arrive with a combination that has already been making plenty of noise around the south coast.
They have extensive RS pedigree between them, and Holden in particular has a long history of success in the RS400. Gullan is equally comfortable in asymmetric boats, and the pairing has shown that they can generate serious pace together.
Most recently, the pair have been lighting up Chichester Harbour Race Week. In light conditions the RS400 dominated the slow asymmetric fleet, with Gullan and Holden taking line honours and showing exactly the sort of boat speed that could translate well to Hayling.
There is also a useful home-water element here: Holden sails from Hayling Island Sailing Club and the pair are entered from Chichester YC/HISC.
Watch for: light-air speed and local knowledge.
Rob Henderson & Rebecca Videlo
The dark horses.
Henderson and Videlo are perhaps the least obvious of our ten favourites — but that doesn't mean they should be overlooked.
Henderson brings substantial championship experience and a proven ability to race at the front of the RS400 fleet. Videlo brings her own experience and, together, they have shown enough pace in 2026 to suggest that a strong Nationals is very much within reach.
This is the sort of team who could quietly sit inside the top ten for three days before suddenly finding themselves in the podium conversation.
A Nationals isn't won by one spectacular race. It's won by avoiding the disasters.
Watch for: the scorecard. If the big numbers stay away, they'll be dangerous.
Ones to Watch
The ten teams above may grab most of the attention, but the RS400 fleet is deep enough that there are plenty of boats capable of upsetting the form book.
Dave Exley & Jack Exley
Dave Exley is one of the sailors we'd be most reluctant to overlook. He has shown serious pace in 2026, including an impressive Northern Championship campaign in which he took two race wins. The combination with Jack makes them a genuine top-ten threat rather than merely outsiders. If Hayling gets breezy, they could move up the list quickly.
Charlie & Caroline Exley
The other Exley combination deserves attention too. Charlie and Caroline bring a huge amount of RS400 experience and are exactly the sort of team who can benefit from a championship where consistency counts. They may not be the headline act, but don't be surprised if they are still hovering around the front after four days.
Neil Bevington & Alan Skeens
A pairing that could quietly have a very good Nationals. Bevington and Skeens have shown they can mix it in a deep Southern fleet, and their strength is the ability to keep the boat in contention without throwing away huge points. Over ten races, that can be enormously valuable.
Jon Heissig & Nicky Griffin
One of the more dangerous combinations in the fleet because they have demonstrated genuine race-winning pace. They were second the last time the nationals were held at Hayling, while their recent RS400 form has included some excellent individual race results. If they can string those performances together over four days, a top-ten result is entirely realistic.
Alastair Rimmer & Ollie Brown
One of the more interesting teams to emerge from the 2026 season.They have shown that they can compete with established RS400 names and have the sort of pace that could see them leapfrog several more experienced teams if the conditions suit.
The prediction
So, after all that, who wins?
That's the easy question to ask and the difficult one to answer.
On paper, Sam Knight and Chris Bownes, Tom Halhead and Paul Hilliar and Edd Whitehead and Ben Whaley probably start as the three combinations with the strongest overall claims.
But Ian and Chris Martin have the experience, the Robertsons have the consistency, Eames and Tilley have unfinished business, and then there's the small matter of two Olympians turning up in an RS400.
So we're going to sit firmly on the fence.
The prediction is: somebody will win. And if it's us, we'll obviously claim this article was a carefully researched piece of sports journalism. If it isn't, we'll blame the tide.