🥇Monique Vennis Ozanne and Hugh Shone
🥈Bryan Ormond and Anna Ormond
🥉Blake Tudor Brett Tudor
Thank you to RLYC and LTSC for hosting the event and to Rooster, the RS800 National Tour sponsors.
Read Brett's full report here 👇
Monique and Hugh set the standard for RS800 sailing on day 1 at the Lymington dinghy regatta with 3 bullets. The day started with a solid breeze of around 12-15 knots, meaning twin-wiring upwind and downwind. No one could stop Hugh and Mo with fast starts off the pin end and untouchable speed upwind; they were consistently out the front. Louis and Lucy seemed to be their closest competition; however, many boats seemed not to have read the sailing instructions, getting disqualified for going through the finish line downwind! This meant Brian and Anna inherited 2nd place, with a consistent day of three 2nds. The wind dropped throughout the day and by race 3 the tide had turned, leading to the fleet gybing down the shoreline with constant position changes. The Tudor brothers were impressively slow on day 1, especially off the start line, not adjusting to the lighter winds in races 2 and 3. They were clearly trying to practise a last-to-first challenge. unsuccessfully. In comparison, the other sibling team of Joe and Ben Bradley rounded out the day with two top threes, leaving it all to play for on Sunday.
Sunday started with a postponement, waiting for wind, but certainly not for the sun, with scorching temperatures. When the wind did fill in, it was similar to Saturday, with between 7 and 10 knots of breeze. Hugh and Mo were equally strong on day 2, narrowly missing out on a clean sweep due to Louis and Lucy. This meant that with three 1sts and a 2nd, they wrapped up the event with 1 race to spare and went home early. The Tudor brothers' second day was far stronger with a 3rd place in race 4 before starting on port in race 5 to lead out to the right. This was replicated by Brian and Anna. The Tudors maintained this lead, covering Louis and Lucy closely up until the last lap, where Brian and Anna split the course from the front 2 boats and came out just ahead at the final windward. Brian's smooth downwind style allowed them to maintain this lead, finishing first with the Tudor brothers close behind in second. This secured them 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Louis and Lucy lost out in such a close battle and ended 4th.
In their first event, Dylan Collingbourne and Alice Lucy impressed with some great starts and impressive pace. with a great second day, racing hard with both the Tudor and Bradley brothers downwind in race 1, with close crosses and calls for room, eventually finishing 5th. The last race proved to be their best of the event with a podium, sneaking past Louis and Lucy on the last beat just before the line. Well done, guys, and hope to see you at more events in the future! Other noticeable mentions must go to Chris Doe and Nick Prince for their 4th place finish in race 1, and William Homewood and John Levell finishing 5th in race 3, racing closely in the leading pack. Overall, a brilliant weekend on the south coast.
Thank you, everyone, for coming, and hope to see as many of you as possible in Germany for the Euros in July!!!
Thank you also to LTSC and Royal Lymington YC for hosting the event and to the RS800 National Tour sponsors Rooster.
Report by Brett Tudor
Photo by Tristan Jones
