Results / Development Weekend at Bloody Mary Queen Mary SC - 06/01/2024

Bloody Mary Development Weekend 6-7 Jan 2024

Despite a chilly forecast and marginal winds for the Bloody Mary, eight RS800s signed up for the 2024 edition.  Whilst the lighter winds promised to make the huge pursuit race more challenging, it did lead to an uncharacteristically calm launching scenario.  Not one RS800 was late for the start - a rare feat!

Monique Vennis-Ozanne and Hugh Shone snuck their nose out in front only to be reeled in by Ben Palmer and Dicken Maclean, and Bryan and Anna Ormond halfway through the first lap.  Ben and Dicken managed to escape from that point onwards and came home first RS800 by some margin - winning a bottle of voddy and a tomato juice for the way home.  Further back, Monique and Hugh, Bryan and Anna, Ralph and Sophie Singleton and the forward charging Rob Mawdsley and Oscar Morgan-Harris probably spent too much time battling each other but perhaps that is fair enough when you are only just crawling past the occasional Wayfarer.  In the end Rob and Oscar overhauled Monique and Hugh on the last upwind to take 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Sunday saw a good group of boats stay on for the club racing in beautiful sunshine and a much fresher breeze.  It was bitingly cold to the point where Oscar even buttoned his hat up.  Brrrrrrrr.  In the club racing, Fiona Hampshire (back for a quick skiff between nappy changes) and Hugh Shone managed to pull off some surprisingly competent sailing in the building breeze and despite their best efforts to kebab a couple of ILCAs posted some solid bullets.  The gusty, breezy conditions provided some challenging conditions from which everyone was able to take some learnings.  Some wetter and colder lessons than others!

Sailing on Sunday was followed up by a quick bite to eat and a debrief with Josh Adams' and Toby Freeland’s boom camera.  It provided a lot of interesting talking points and the value of some onboard footage to help understand what is going on in the boat is clear.

Well done to all who represented the RS800 at the Bloody Mary - great to see you and looking forward to another fantastic season!

Many thanks to Simon Winkley for the photos

Report by High Shone