Round 5 of the RS 800 Fat Face series was staged at one of the fleets’ favourite venues Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club. The 35 teams were not to be disappointed by yet classic Eastbourne Bay conditions.

As the fleet headed out for the first race they were greeted with a full force SW sea breeze of 18-22 knots and an ebbing tide, this gave for some fantastic wave jumping conditions! Ben McGrane & Olivier Vidal (Selden) led Justin Deal & Ollie Page (Fat Face) round the top mark followed by locals Andy Jeffries & Toby Wincer. McGrane & Vidal extended their lead to win by a big margin followed by Ian Martin & Adam Broughton (Magic Marine) who sailed through the fleet showing great upwind speed.

For race 2 the tide had turned and the sea conditions stared to flatten off, this gave crews a chance to really let the boats "rip" on the off-wind legs. This time Deal & Page got the advantage over McGrane & Vidal followed by Jeffries & Wincer.

The last race of the day saw the breeze slightly moderate and again Deal & Page showed the fleet round this time from Ben Schooling & Tim Hirst who showed great speed and nearly overhauled the leaders on the final upwind leg.

Saturday night's social was centred around the club house, with a great days racing there was plenty of "salty sea tails"! Fantastic food followed by a quiz, a disco and lots of beer created the classic British sailing club evening.

Sunday morning came around a little quickly for some of the crews but a slight postponement for wind came to their rescue. As the sailors tucked into their full English breakfast, the sea breeze again started to work its magic. The crews headed out to the start and the breeze gently increased. The first race was general recalled, as the tide took most of the fleet over the line, this brought out the Black Flag and the race was successfully started. The battle at the front resumed from the day before with McGrane & Vidal winning from Deal & Page, third place taken by Neil Baker & James ‘Uzi’ Hughes.

Race 5 saw the breeze increase to 16 knots – Usual suspects appeared at the front with Deal & Page taking the initiative back from McGrane & Vidal by scoring a first place. Tom Halhead & Christian Humphrey finished third.

With Deal & Page and McGrane & Vidal on equal points for first place overall, it was all down to the final race of the weekend. McGrane & Vidal took control from the start of race six and lead to the finish in difficult and changeable conditions. Second was taken by Halhead & Humphrey with third place going to Schooling & Hirst.

As a result, McGrane & Vidal took the event by a whisker from Deal & Page setting up a mouth watering 3-way finale to the Fat Face series in September at Exe SC with the absent Pete Barton & Roz Allen. Halhead & Humphrey finished the event in third place forcing Andy Jeffries into ‘report writing’ fourth. The Silver fleet was won by Simon & Jo Skinner in thirteenth place.

All in all it was another great weekend of "champagne conditions" and social activities concluded with a prize giving in the Sunday evening sunshine. Thank you to Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club for providing the special blend of sea sailing and friendly family atmosphere.

The fleet now turns their attention to the RS EuroCup event at Garda in less than two weeks. Fraglia Vela Riva host over 70 RS800s - the biggest entry of the class ever so the racing is set to be epic!!