Results / Gul RS Inland Championships Rutland S.C. - 18/10/2003

30 RS800�s travelled to Rutland Water for the weekend to compete in the National Pond Sailing Championships, to find that the tide was out� The event was shared with the 400�s and the 700�s and with not much water in the lake, 120 boats and 2 racecourses it was a little busy at times. A cracking weekends sailing though, with superb racing in a good breeze and a monster party including the rugby which had been recorded for us, the 2003 Fat Face Circuit and Eurocup prize giving, a live band, and a lot of drinking on Saturday night! A trapezoid course with outer loop for the 800�s this weekend to separate us from the 700�s, the wind gusting up to 18 knots made for some exciting - whether to go for the kite on the reaches or not? � decisions. An extra 3 knots of breeze on the bottom reach to the finish line was enough to see boats flat out twin wiring, aiming straight at the beach and then dropping spinnakers in a hurry, as oppose to heading for the committee boat! Steve Irish and Martin Gotrell in Magic Marine dominated the event. They scored 1,1,2 on day one to be clear overnight leaders. Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston from Bristol Corinthian got two seconds and a fourth to be second overall, and Paul Jenkins and Colin Hatton from Weir Wood had a consistent day with 3,3,3. James Date and Mark Hogan in Sea Sure won the last race of the day to add to their two fourths in races one and two. Completing the overnight top 5 were Spod Olive and Jane Norris sailing Sola, having a good day scoring 5,8,5 and still speaking to each other! Day two was cloudy, as were people�s memories of the morning due to still being intoxicated from the night before, with a bit more breeze than Saturday by the time racing got underway. Haworth/Aston got the day underway with a race win from Irish/Gotrell with Alex Davies and Sarah Hughes getting the better of Date/Hogan for third. The weekend had been pretty standard puddle sailing, tack when the sail flaps and stay in the pressure downwind� until race five, when the race got turned on it�s head by the wind deserting the leaders who had been parked at mark two. Those who went left down the run to escape lost loads and had a lot of work to do. Olive/Norris took the lead and led until the last mark when the stress of leading in the shifty conditions finally got to Spod, and with Irish/Gotrell approaching fast having made an amazing charge through the fleet, he decided he needed to cool down� the capsize dropping them to fourth. Jenkins/Hatton took second with Ronald Millar and Peter Marshall from Dalgety Bay having a good day and adding to their fifth in the first race of the day, in third. The final race and it was Date/Hogan leading at the windward mark followed by Irish/Gotrell sailing well considering his mainsheet block was no longer attached to the bottom of the boat. Millar/Marshall powered into the lead down the first run. At the next windward mark it all started to go wrong for Date/Hogan with a uncharacteristic display of muppetness involving a bit of trawling with the spinnaker. And when that produced no fish, Date decided that the only way was to get in the water to find some, and lose it coming out of a gybe on the next lap. The capsize handed third overall to Jenkins/Hatton. Irish/Gotrell eventually won the race from Millar/Marshall completing a scorecard of four firsts and two seconds. Haworth/Aston took third in this race to take second overall. Millar/Marshall�s excellent 5,3,2 on the Sunday pulled them up to fifth overall. Thanks to everyone involved in organising the weekends sailing and partying at Rutland, our race officer for setting start lines that you could cross on starboard (I believe the 400�s had a few problems!). A superb event to top the year off. Next stop, the RS pursuit race at Queen Mary if there is any water in it�