A terrific fleet of 18 RS300s turned up for the annual sprint championships hosted by Rutland SC and sponsored by Gul. With a fleet of this size, at one point on Saturday morning rumoured to larger than the 200s, in the words of one observer the 300s would no longer be regarded as the ‘strange ugly cousin’ in RS circles. With the majority of the 300 helms showing more than a passing resemblance to SuBO (that’s Susan Boyle for those of you who, unlike myself, are not avid readers of OK!) I’m not sure of the veracity of this statement but at least we can show we’ve got talent.

The fleet was split into two flights with eight races on Saturday to decide gold and silver fleets ahead of Sunday’s showdown. Fleet Rep SaSu made his intentions clear early on in flight 1 by covering up the opening beat in the first race. However, after the opening bout of 4 races TiKe was the one showing the talent with a 1,1,2,3 scoreline.

In flight 2 MiBe was showing no talent whatsoever after throwing away a sizeable lead in race 1 by sailing the wrong course, no small feat on a predominantly windward/leeward course. At lunchtime the leader was SteBo with an identical scoreline to TiKe.

For the afternoon’s races the fleets had to contend with 15+ knot winds at times in addition to the 30 degree shifts. This produced some interesting racing, not the least of it being trying to avoid the many upturned hulls in the water, the majority of them being RS400-shaped.

By the end of the qualifying rounds Tim Keen, Sam Sutton-Reid, Ben Hollis and Mark Newton were into the gold fleet from flight one with Steve Bolland, Mike Bees, Pete Ellis and Paul Thompson joining them from flight 2.

After a quiet evening and an early night the fleet was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed ahead of Sunday’s racing. The wind had abated a bit from Saturday afternoon but the sun had gone and there was a normal English midsummer chill (and rain). In addition, with the course tucked up under the southern shore, there were some wild shifts and windspeeds ranging from nil to plenty.

In the silver fleet Harry McVicar, who may well have qualified for the gold fleet had he not ripped his mast track off during Saturday’s racing,  recorded three wins, two 2nds and a 3^rd to win from Richard Le Mare and Eddie Griffiths.

Ahead in the gold fleet, Steve Bolland held a healthy lead at the halfway point with three bullets. He was somewhat fortunate in race 2 by using what he termed his ‘tactical genius’ by going from 4^th to 1^st on the last beat by the simple expedient of pointing his boat directly at the mark. It worked, much to the chagrin of early leader Sam Sutton-Reid who went from 1^st to 6^th in the last hundred yards of the beat.

In the next two races Tim Keen fought back with a win and a 2^nd to put some pressure on Bolland with Mike Bees also always in the mix and recording a race win. However, another win for Bolland in the final race secured the overall title.

Rutland SC is to be congratulated on once again running the event so smoothly. Each of the 200, 300 and 400 fleets completed 14 races over the weekend in various flights, 112 races in all with minimal turnaround times and perfect course management ensuring that each race lasted between 15 and 20 minutes. With the exciting racing format and expert organisation this is rapidly turning into one of the favourite events in the 300 calendar.

Next stop is at Brightlingsea on 2/3 July before the National Championship at the Olympic sailing centre in Weymouth in August where we anticipate an entry of 40+ boats.