RS200 SW Ugly Tour at Bristol Corinthian YC on March 28th

What a difference a week makes, summer appears to have leap frogged spring over this Easter weekend, which makes it feel like the BCYC RS200 SW Ugly Tour event the week before was all but a distant memory. The forecast of gale force winds and plenty of rain tried its best to put the fleet off, with boats rigged in sideways rain, what had we let ourselves in for?? A briefing hidden in the shelter of the clubhouse, the fleet taking comfort with a bacon butty and rumours of 40kt+ gusts certainly appeared to add weight to the forecast... As so often happens, a terrible forecast never quite materialises in real life, the result? A fantastic 4 races to kick off the 2015 2nhanddinghies.com sponsored SW Ugly Tour, in quite manageable F3-F5 winds.

So to the first race, which provided plenty of close and hard fought racing, with places changing throughout the competitive fleet. The wind proved tactically challenging, with a surprising drop to a F3-4, leading to marginal planing and gust hunting downwind. Matt Mee/Emma Norris pulled through the front pack, to control the race and take the win from Simon Potts/Ally Martin in 2nd and John Teague/Naomi Pound in 3rd.

Race 2 started with more of a bang, the wind building throughout the race with gusts into the late 20kts recorded. Now this really let the fleet stretch its legs and enjoy the exhilarating downwind legs, and if there's one boat that revels in these conditions, its the team of Edd Whitehead/Alice Eyre, showing the fleet a clean pair of heels to take the win, from Teague/Pound in 2nd and Mee/Norris in 3rd.

Race 3 began back at a sensible F4 wind speed, giving the fleet another closely fought battle, with place changes a plenty, led first by new team Alistair Norris/Frederick Mainwaring at the first mark, with the fleet close behind. Final line honours went to with Mee/Norris taking the win from Whitehead/Eyre and Potts/Martin in 3rd. The final race and all to play for, with Mee/Norris once again taking a third bullet, and 2nd and 3rd going to Potts/Martin and Teague/Pound respectively.

So after 4 closely fought races, we had our first winners of the 2015 SW Ugly Tour, with the win going to Matt Mee/Emma Norris from Red Wharf Bay SC, Simon Potts/Ally Martin from Burghfield SC in 2nd and John Teague/Naomi Pound from Bristol Corinthian YC in 3rd. Silver fleet was won by the Parkstone based team of Peter Eyre/Nina Norden who put together an impressive series of results, and must surely be pushing hard for a promotion to Gold! Bronze fleet was closely fought, with a single point victory for Andy Brierly/Larissa Connabear from Royal Torbay YC.

The next event of the series sees us travelling South to Exe Sailing Club on May 23rd, where we get to sample one of the countries finest sea venues, not to mention the legendary cake mountain post sail! Checkout the “RS200 SW Ugly Tour 2015” Facebook group for a great photo gallery of the BCYC event, and to keep your finger on the pulse with all thing RS200 SW.