Gul RS800 National Champs, Day 4

They say that you have to be bold enough to go and take National Titles, as nobody is going to give them to you. Today in Weymouth Bay Geoff Carveth and Craig Davies put on a masterful display of starting and light- wind sailing to post notice that if you want to win this title, then they are the ones that you need to beat. Instead of the flat water within Portland Harbour the fleet were sent out into the bay to be greeted by a light easterly sea breeze. With single trapeze conditions and then only on a marginal basis it place a huge emphasis on the start. Again the black flag rule had to be introduced to get the fleet away and it was Geoff and Craig who dominated the starters at the committee boat end. They then chose to go right, which with slightly better pressure had them leading by a comfortable margin at the windward mark. Overnight leader Mike Lennon and Nicky Griffin had chosen the left hand side of the course, along with Steve Irish. In the light conditions the escape routes that had been available on previous days, were now longer open and they finished 36th and 41st respectively. In the second race of the day Carveth again won the starboard end and headed right, but this time with Lennon and Irish in close attendance. As the wind continued to shift to the right, the gybe set at the top mark almost had them laying the leeward mark and the race quickly became a procession. In these conditions it was a simple matter of Carveth hanging on to record his fourth race win of the series and move him into first place overall with just one day left. Carveth who finished second last week at the RS 400 Nationals can now only be beaten by Lennon or Irish and only by Irish if Carveth discards both remaining races and Irish has two top three finishes. It remains to be seen if Carveth will simply sail Mike Lennon down the fleet or concentrate on his own sailing. What is certain, is that it will be a tight finish and that the winner will need to take these opportunities.