Noble Marine RS700 National Championship at Royal Torbay Yacht Club - Overall

Noble Marine RS700 Nationals at Torbay © Paul Gibbins Photography

On day 3, a stunning glass like bay met the fleet leading to a small delay, after which the wind built to around 10 knots as we entered the first race of the day.

On paper, right seemed the way to go. However, there is paper and there is Torbay! The wind died on the right while holding long enough on the left to allow the left-hand crew to come piling in. The Dabchicks trio of Tom Dutton and Jack and Oli Grogan, along with Marek Dudak & Pistol Pete Purkiss, all rounded closely and started their descent down wind. The dying breeze allowed for the mid pack to close up on the leaders. Go Left? The leading pack headed back the way they had come but the wind clapped out leaving a raft of stranded 700's and the breeze then swung from SE through to SW and built from the right. Marek Dudak, being furthest right, picked up the breeze and disappeared to take a convincing win. Jack Grogan picked his way back over to the right well to take second, followed by Pistol Pete in third.

Noble Marine RS700 Nationals at Torbay - photo © Paul Gibbins Photography

For race 7, the wind had built to around 15 knots and mirrored the conditions the fleet had experienced on day 1. Rob Higgins (who had collected all the toys he had thrown out in race 6), Jack Grogan and Tom Dutton led the charge out to the left. Pistol Pete, who had been trigger happy, headed right after returning from an OCS. Jack nailed the lay line and rounded ahead of Rob and Tom with Pete, having come from the right, rounding in fourth. Jack and Rob arrived at the bottom gate as the 800's had just started. Jack went off left to the favoured side with Rob, deciding that a blanket of 800s was to be avoided, putting a stint out right before going back to the left. This allowed him to sneak in front of Jack and cover him to the finish. Pete had overtaken Tom to take third.

And so, into the final day of racing...

A schedule of three races was planned to draw the championship to a close on Sunday. A light and flukey breeze, along with some nice swell, was in store for the fleet.

The Torbay coin was tossed and the fleet headed off left and right after the start of race 8. The right-hand side came in, allowing Pistol Pete to lead from start to almost the finish. Marek Dudak & Oli Grogan were in hot pursuit. Pete having done a horizon job, and with 71 years of experience under his belt, decided that he needed to round the bottom gate and show off (his words not mine) on the tight kite reach to the committee boat. This resulted in a capsize 20 metres from the finish. Marek then followed in the swimming fun but did so after taking the race win. Next up was Oli Grogan, who I can only assume had FOMO and also jumped in. Rob Higgins who has been sticking close to Jack Grogan came next but decided to cash in on the fleet wrapped present to take second in a photo finish with a recovering Pete.

Noble Marine RS700 Nationals at Torbay - photo © Paul Gibbins Photography

With Torbay showing its hand in the first race of the day, surely the right-hand side would pay in the second? Rob Higgins won the committee boat end and was first to tack off. He was followed by Sam Caslin, who had been going well all day, and Roland Smith. With the wind rotating right, the early tackers benefitted to lead the fleet. Rob would extend on the fleet to take the win. Behind, Sam led a Dabchicks based match race including the Grogan brothers to take a well-deserved second in front of Jack.

With time running out, no more racing was possible, and the event concluded with Rob Higgins crowned the 2026 Noble Marine National Champion!

Huge thanks must be extended to Royal Torbay Yacht Club for providing a fantastic championship with a great series of races. Thanks also to the event headline sponsor Noble Marine and to Rooster and RS Sailing Store.

Congratulations to Rob and all the prize winners:

National Champion - Rob Higgins
2nd - Jack Grogan
3rd - Marek Dudak
4th - Thomas Dutton
5th - Matt Conner
1st Silver fleet - Oli Grogan
Peter Purkiss Legend Trophy - Peter Purkiss
Fidelis - James Clark
Endeavour - Stephen Carr

Overall Results: