Results / Gul Inland Championships Grafham Water SC - 27/09/2003

The RS300 UK Inland Championship was held at Grafham Water over the weekend of the 27th / 28th September and attracted an entry of 17 from as far afield as Inverness. The winds were generally light, very light on Saturday but built up through Sunday to cause a few capsizes in the final race. Race 1 started into a light northerly with plenty of holes to catch out the unwary. Nick Bolland and Matt Sargent were first to round the windward mark and had a close tussle before Bolland edged Sargent out at the final mark to squeeze the win. Tom Alexander enjoyed the conditions to finish 3rd ahead of the chasing pack. There was even less wind at the start of race 2, but again it was Bolland and Sargent leading. This time Sargent got the upper hand to win, with Chris Mason 3rd and James Grummitt 4th with his A-Rig. Suddenly the wind appeared and gave us another race winner in Ian Baillie, who led from the first mark ahead of Bolland and held on as the wind began to fail again. Sargent continued his consistent performance with a 3rd just ahead of Mason. Sunday gave us some wind, which built through the day but the sun was hidden behind some early rain clouds. The line for race 4 was port biased and Ben Yeats and Baillie both tried a risky port ender, which didn't come off but Bolland and Steve Cook both made excellent starts to finish 1,2 with Yeats recovering to 3rd ahead of Sargent. The wind was gradually building as race 5 got underway and it was Mason first to the windward mark with Baillie and Yates hot on his heels. Baillie passed Mason on the first run before the recalled start of the 600s enabled these 2 to break away from the pack, with Baillie covering Mason closely to the finish. Sargent was 3rd and Bolland's 4th meant he had won the event. The final race was convincingly won by Baillie, who was first to tack off the line into the port tack lift and met the headers at just the right time to have a substantial lead by first mark. Sargent led the pack home in 2nd, despite a swim, Mason continued his good form with 3rd, Cook was 4th and Bolland, who couldn't care where he finished now, was 5th. A big thank you to Grafham Water Sailing Club who provided excellent racing in some difficult conditions and to GUL for their continuing support of our circuit.