Results / Gul Sprint Championships Rutland SC - 15/06/2013

An impressive turnout of 16 boats made the RS300 the second largest fleet at this fantastic and well supported event. The fleet were split into two flights on the Saturday, with 8 races held to qualify for the Silver and Gold fleets on the Sunday.

Saturday’s racing was full on with a fresh to frightening 4-5 SW blowing hard. A thunderstorm passed close by towards the end of race 4, giving rise to a vicious squall just in time for the 300’s favourite point of sailing – dead run! Bish was really glad he had strapped the Go-Pro onto his boom that morning, perfectly capturing a classic nose-dive come mast hugging manoeuvre, followed by 4 capsizes in quick succession. The camera also works well underwater, with the 300 being remarkably stable upside down! While the fleet was decimated, Sparky (aka Mark Newton) re-wrote the heavy weather downwind manual, water skiing gracefully out the back while the boat neatly rounded the bottom mark on autopilot allowing him to cruise to the finish.

The afternoon session started off much more sedate, only to build to a good breeze as soon as the fleet launched. Keen, unhappy with shorthish line, took it upon himself to lengthen it and then sail round in circles for a while to give the fleet a good head start. Overall the two flights were dominated by Bish and Bolland respectively who sailed brilliantly in the testing conditions. An extremely weary fleet then headed to the pub to re-fuel after a superb days racing.

Day 2 dawned sunny and warm, with a shifty force 3 from the same direction as Saturday. Bazza (aka Barry Steel) joined the Silver fleet having wisely decided to drink tea and eat cakes on Saturday, observing from a safe distance. In a break with tradition, Bolland was relatively sober and managed to get out of bed for day 2. 6 races were held back to back (all to count) to decide the Gold and Silver fleet standings. Jenkins managed to string a consistent set of results together to claim the overall victory, with Bolland in 2^nd having to count an 8^th after being hung out to dry on one of the runs. Racing was very close throughout the fleet, navigating the 1^st long tricky beat being pivotal to success. McVicar sailed well to hold off a late challenge from Keen to secure 3^rd with Catchpole close behind. The silver fleet was convincingly won by Norris, scoring four 1^st’s and never finishing outside the top 3. Sparky won the battle for second with Wood in 3^rd, just 2 points behind.

Many thanks to Rutland for some great race management and to Harry’s granddad for some cracking cake!