RS Fat Face Racing Circuit Event – Weston Sailing Club 14/15^th July 2007

35 RS800’s made the trip to Weston for the 8^th round of the Fat Face Circuit, and experienced everything a British summer has to offer – 5 knots, 25 knots, sun, rain and everything in between!

Sharing the event with the 600’s and several types of International Canoe meant for a packed racecourse, and Saturday’s shifty breeze led to lots of place changes and the opportunity for big gains and losses.

Neil Baker & James Hughes won race 1 convincingly on the water.  However they fell foul of the line in the Sailing Instructions stopping the fleet sailing through the start line downwind, and so were recorded as DNF, along with a large number of others!  This gave the victory to the hard chasing Charlie Roome & Steve Hall, with Justin Deal & stand in crew Rosie Geyman 2^nd.

Race 2 saw a similar breeze, and Deal/Geyman and Roome/Hall reversed places to take 1^st and 2^nd, once again aided by Baker/Hughes leading from the front but repeating their previous error.  Spod Olive & Guy Fillmore took 3^rd to keep them in the hunt.

The wind picked up considerably for race 3, possibly contributing to the start line antics which left several of the fleet spinning around whilst the rest sailed away up the first beat!  Olive/Fillmore this time got it spot on to take the gun, followed by Ian Martin & Adam Broughton and Graham Simmonds & Chris Doe revelling in the stronger breezes.

Saturday night saw a BBQ in the falling sun overlooking Southampton Water, followed by a walk, or taxi ride, to Hamble to continue the party at Boomerang’s.  The tired looking faces the following morning suggested a good night was had by all!

Sunday saw a difficult choppy sea and fluctuating breezes, which changed the established order and saw Mick Whitmore & Sarah Smith pick up a victory, chased hard by Mark Lees (in his first 800 event) & Orwin Murray.  3^rd were Rob Struckett & George Yeoman showing some of the older members of the fleet how its done.

Race 5 was lead for a long period by Jane Olive & Dan Brown, before they were finally overhauled by Deal/Geyman, giving them the event with a race to spare, by showing impressive consistency in the changing wind.  David & Fiona Sayce finished 3^rd to keep them in the hunt for a good placing overall.

A torrential downpour and thunder preceded a light start to the final race, with those who had spotted the stronger breeze to the right making gains.  The first of these was Lees & Murray, chased hard by Ben Schooling & the weekend’s birthday boy Tim Hirst.  These two ended up finishing in that order in a shortened one lap race, followed by Roome/Hall taking 3^rd.

The decision to curtail the race became a good one as big gusts and driving rain that hurt hit the fleet on the short sail home.

Overall Deal & Geyman were victorious, ahead of Olive/Fillmore and Roome/Hall.  Only the trip to Travemunde Week and one more circuit event at Derwent remain before the nationals at Eastbourne in early September.  Lots of teams have been showing signs of form, meaning there’s all the more reason to get your entry in now and make the event one to remember.