Gul RS200 Winter Championship at Northampton Sailing Club

by Pete Vincent 20 Feb 2007 05:53 GMT 17-18 February 2007

44 teams take part in the RS200 Winter Championships at Northampton © Mike Shaw / www.fotoboat.com

The RS200 year started with the traditional season opener of the Gul Winter Championships at Northampton SC. Also in true tradition an excellent fleet of 44 boats competed in very tight racing producing the closest possible finish. As is also tradition now Northampton SC proved yet again to be very friendly hosts and organised the sailing very well. The RS classes have now held so many events at Northampton because the club makes life so easy for competitors.

Windguru was not over optimistic for the weekend so it was with much relief that the competitors and race team found a respectable 9/10 knots from the North West for the first race at 12.00 in pretty mild temperatures. Current Gul RS200 National Champion Roger Gilbert/Jane Willan in a brand new boat straight out of the wrapper seemed to have stamped his authority on the fleet right from the start to win from Geoff Carveth/Katy Nichol and James Stewart/Toby Lewis in another new boat. In race 2 visiting Lark stars Steve Cumley/Eluned Jones got a majestic port flyer on a crazy starboard biased start line to jump into a good lead. Carveth/Nichol slowly eroded this advantage to gain a race winning lead on the final beat ahead of Cumley/Jones with an old RS face Eddie Whitehead crewed by Noelle Vidal making a welcome come back in third. Gilbert/Willian won the third race from Budworth’s Graham Tinsley/Becky Partridge and Stewart/Lewis.

Sunday and the wind was due north around 7/8 knots for the 10.00 start. Colin Smith/Rachael Williamson really had found forward gear and won the first two races. Carveth/Nichol and Gilbert/Willan both scored 2.4. Caroline Martin/Charlotte Cotter built on an excellent first day at their first big RS200 event with a third place along with the very consistent Stewart/Lewis. Over the lunch break for club racing competitors digested how close the scores on the doors were. Gilbert/Willan were one point clear of Carveth/Willan, Smith/Williamson/Stewart/Lewis were tied on points for third overall as were the leading boats in the bronze division.

With all to play for the wind did not help shifting to the east, dropping to 4-6 knots and then shifting back to the north in the start sequence. Carveth really won the fight for the pin end on the very biased line to lead from the start with Gilbert around tenth. On a one sided course it did not look good for Gilbert but as the race team worked hard to shift buoys as the race progressed to produce a true course Gilbert pulled through to eventually finish second behind Carveth. This left the two leading boats tied on points with the same number of firsts, seconds and fourths. Carveth/Nichol won the Gul RS200 Winter Championships as a result of winning the last race. I cannot help feeling these two could be having equally close finishes during the rest of the season.

Tinsley/Partridge won the silver division from Roger Tait/Georgie Hill and Whitehead/Vidal. The tight fight for the bronze division went in favour of Richard Neall/Sara Terry who produced an excellent sixth place in the last race to beat John Gill/Judy Faulds by two points with Steve Cooper/Anna Row third.

The RS200 Fat Race Racing Circuit kicks off in a month’s time with the first event at the West Country’s finest Bristol Corinthian YC on March 17/18. It will be big and a lot of fun.

Overall Results:

Pos	Fleet	Sail No	Helm	Crew	Club	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	Pts
1	Gold	751	Geoff Carveth	Katy Nichol	Littleton	2	1	-5	4	2	1	10
2	Gold	1219	Roger Gilbert	Jane Willan	Frensham Pond	1	-11	1	2	4	2	10
3	Gold	1133	Colin Smith	Rachael Williamson	Papercourt	7	-15	6	1	1	5	20
4	Gold	1203	James C Stewart	Toby Lewis	Stokes Bay	3	7	3	6	3	-9	22
5	Gold	626	Caroline Martin	Charlotte	Burghfield	8	6	9	3	-11	3	29
6	Gold	725	Matt Jenkins	Emma Jenkins	Sheffield Viking	11	5	8	-12	7	4	35
7	Silver	979	Graham Tinsley	Becky Partridge	Budworth	6	16	2	7	-19	7	38
8	Gold	772	Tom Hewitson	Emma Clarke	Rickmansworth SC	5	14	4	-19	6	19	48
9	Silver	1176	Roger Tait	Georgie Hill	Scaling Dam	13	-17	7	8	12	8	48
10	Silver	345	Eddie Whitehead	Noelle Vidal	Filey	15	3	-18	10	9	17	54
11	Silver	789	Steve Cumley	Eluned Jones	Barnt Green	20	2	12	-21	10	11	55
12	Gold	953	Nicholas Charles	Juliet Kingsnorth	BCYC	14	8	15	-25	5	14	56
13	Silver	1022	Stephen Janering	Cottie Wakeling	Wembley SC	25	4	14	5	-29	13	61
14	Gold	1077	Pete Vincent	Jon's Girlfiend	Bristol	10	9	10	18	-27	15	62
15	Gold	1054	Jonathan Lewis	Laura Woosey	Burghfield	12	10	(45.0 DNF)	16	15	10	63
16	Gold	1207	Trudie Fell	Karen Baker	Bristol	4	23	13	11	-24	20	71
17	Gold	1147	Simon Gillow	Emma Harniman	Wembley SC	17	13	11	13	-22	18	72
18	Bronze	486	Richard Neall	Sara Terry	Itchenor	16	-31	22	20	14	6	78
19	Bronze	1144	John Gill	Judy Faulds	Wembley SC	19	-25	17	9	13	22	80
20	Bronze	735	Steve Cooper	Anna Row	Draycote Water	22	12	19	14	18	-25	85
21	Bronze	1092	Katy Shepherd	Dan Phillips	Ripon SC	9	21	-33	27	17	16	90
22	Gold	600	Fiona Hall	Helen Wightman	Littleton	18	18	16	17	-25	21	90
23	Bronze	1068	Russell Collister	June Collister	Isle of Man YC	24	19	21	-36	8	33	105
24	Gold	941	Mike Chapman	Lynne Ratcliffe	Bough Beech	26	-30	28	23	21	12	110
25	Bronze	714	Tom Olden	Jess Olden	Gurnard SC	21	29	25	22	-31	28	125
26	Silver	835	Charlie Muir-Sands	Jane Muir-Sands	Littleton	30	20	32	(45.0 DNF)	20	27	129
27	Bronze	984	Nigel Harniman	Ian Gill	Wembley SC	28	-40	26	26	32	23	135
28	Silver	920	Mark Harrison	Sally Harrison		27	32	-40	15	37	26	137
29	Silver	529	Toby Ashton	Rachel Ashton	Oxford	-38	35	34	24	16	32	141
30	Bronze	834	Andrew Gill	Liam Watson	Wembley SC	36	22	20	32	34	-37	144
31	Bronze	912	Lol Hayward	Sarah Webb	Staunton Harold	23	34	31	-40	28	31	147
32	Bronze	654	Stephen Woodward	Emma Yates	BCYC	29	24	29	31	36	-39	149
33	Silver	7	P Goodwin	Serena de Naulik	Draycote Water	-37	33	24	33	26	34	150
34	Silver	1015	Wayne Fletcher	Debra Fletcher	Scaling Dam	33	27	23	30	40	(DNC)	153
35	Bronze	1033	Ian Aldridge	Bryony Hackett-Evans		-39	26	30	38	30	30	154
36	Bronze	252	Tom Castle	Emma Rhodes	Northampton SC	32	-41	27	34	33	36	162
37	Bronze	822	Aileen Ludlow	Kate Lowe	Sunderland YC	34	37	-39	39	23	35	168
38	Bronze	612	Phil Waind	Sonya Waind	Wembley SC	(DNC)	36	38	35	35	24	168
39	Bronze	574	Philip J Benn	David Moore	Ripon SC	31	39	35	28	38	-40	171
40	Silver	1146	Joanne Wotton	Richard Murphy	Wembley SC	35	28	36	37	41	(DNC)	177
41	Silver	561	Thomas Winskell	Robert Winskell	RNSA	40	38	37	29	-42	38	182
42	Bronze	1162	John Woolhouse	Gary Livingstone	Northampton SC	42	-44	43	41	39	29	194
43	Bronze	832	Wes Kangurs	Jo Munro	BCYC	-43	43	42	42	43	41	211
44	Bronze	227	Neil Kelsall	Richard Kelsall	Banbury SC	41	42	41	(DNC)	DNC	DNC	214