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CONGRATULATIONS TO THEO GALYER 2020 RS700 NATIONAL CHAMPION! The lucky winner of the RS700 spinnaker generously donated by Hyde Sails was Andrew Wright from Queen Mary SC. Matthew Conner, also from Queen Mary SC, won the sports bag donated by Noble Marine. Apprentice: Liam Willis from Lymington Town SC Fidelis Trophy: Ian Swann from HISC 1st Silver: Graham Blake from Queen Mary SC Master: Jerry Wales from Windsport 5th: Matt Carter from Lancing SC 4th: Pete Purkiss from Brightlingsea SC 3rd: Rob Higgins from Chew Valley SC 2nd: Jerry Wales from Windsport 1st and National Champion: Theo Galyer from HISC Day One report by Rob Higgins Day Two report by Pete Purkiss Day Three report by Matt Carter Day Four report by Rob Higgins Day One of Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championship in Association with Hyde Sails Day one of the rescheduled RS700 nationals and the fleet were welcomed with a warm September sun at WPNSA. After plenty of boat prep and catching up the fleet launched into a 10-11 knot breeze. Race One: The fleet got away at the first time of asking with the majority of the fleet heading out to the left hand side of the course. Pete Purkiss, with some blistering upwind speed, soon headed the fleet with Theo Galyer hot on his tails. Pete and Theo rounded the windward mark together shortly followed by a compact group of Rob Higgins, Liam Willis, Matt Carter and Jerry Wales. Pete now showed some great downwind speed to pull away from Theo. He continued to pulled away from the fleet leaving Theo to look over his shoulder at the constant position changing from the chasing pack. This carried on for the next lap with Pete leading, Theo holding onto second and the next four chopping and changing places. The final lap saw Pete round the windward mark with a comfortable lead, followed in second by Theo, with Rob close behind. Pete had decided it wasn’t important to read the sailing instructions and rounded the leeward gate to head off for another lap. Theo and Rob, with some on course conformation about the number of laps, decided to blast down to the finish handing Theo the win. Rob was a close second with Matt Carter pipping a now gybing Pete to the finish line. Race Two: The wind swung around and built to 14 knots leading to a short delay. The start was a similar story with the fleet wanting to head left. Theo and Liam made good starts at the committee boat end and held an early advantage. Pete, Jerry and Rob all made solid starts further down the line. Theo nailed the port lay line to just tack inside Jerry who had played the shifts well up the first beat. These two were followed by Rob, Liam and Pete. Theo gybed off early with Jerry, Rob and Liam heading off to the right. At the leeward gate Theo, Jerry and Rob came together leading to find Theo calling a bold but legal late shout for room involving a super late gybe drop. This sent Jerry wide leaving the door open for Rob to round up inside. Theo continued to hold the advantage. Rob had now moved into second and Jerry was third. Theo took a comfortable win, Rob second, Jerry third and Pete fourth. So Theo has taken two bullets to start a solid defence to his national champion’s crown. After sailing the class held a socially distanced raffle. The lucky winner of the RS700 Spinnaker generously donated by Hyde Sails was Andrew Wright from Queen Mary SC. Matt Conner was the winner of a smart kit bag kindly donated by Noble Marine. Report by Rob Higgins Up on Y&Y here Day Two of Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championship in Association with Hyde Sails Race three: The fleet got off in marginal trapezing conditions. Jerry Wales made the most of the shifty wind conditions to round the windward mark just ahead of Pete Purkiss. After a close downwind tussle Pete Purkiss was forced to tack off to clear his wind, caught a lucky shift on the right-hand side to take the lead from Jerry. Pete won the race, Jerry was second and Rob Higgins took third. However, while they were battling a course move flag was misunderstood for shortened course. The Pied Piper Matt Conner led a group of fellow Queen Mary SC members incorrectly to the finish. Race four: The race started in a falling breeze. The first beat was sailed in shifty conditions and Pete, after being buried at the start, took a flier and went hard right only to round the windward mark first. He was followed by Liam and Jerry. These three boats had a close battle downwind with Liam displaying superior speed despite Jerry’s attempts to catch him. Liam went on to win the race, followed by Jerry and Pete. Ian Swann was fourth. Graham Blake had a good day coming fifth. Race five: The wind by this stage was often as low as four knots so the Race Officer decided to send the fleet ashore under a postponement in the hope of a sea breeze building. The race was postponed for the day. Report by Pete Purkiss Day two on Y&Y here Day Three of Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championship in Association with Hyde Sails Report by Matt Carter Day three on Y&Y here Final Day Four of Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championship in Association with Hyde Sails Day four with two scheduled races and we were greeted with a light breeze and warm sun. An early postponement was sounded which allowed the fleet time to relax and enjoy the sun while allowing the wind time to decide which way it wanted to come from. Eventually the breeze showed signs of settling and the fleet were launched into a 6 knot breeze that would build to 10 knots. Race Nine: The fleet got away with a general recall being sounded, the guilty party Pete Purkiss acknowledged and went back. Theo Gayler, knowing a good result would seal the event, made a solid start at the committee boat joined by Liam Willis. Theo would just tack inside Liam to round the windward mark first closely followed by Liam, Rob Higgins and Matt Conner. The chasing pack was headed by Jerry Wales. Rob managed to hoist quickly and get over the top of Liam to move into second. The final lap proved to be the most eventful. Theo rounded first with Rob in second. Rob headed out to the left joined by Liam. Jerry and Matt headed out hard right - this would greatly pay. Jerry rounded the windward mark first closely followed by Theo, and Matt who had now overtaken Rob and rounded in third. At the bottom gate Jerry decided to drop in order to head to the finish line while Theo decided he would try and hold the kite. The pair were separated by one second with Jerry taking the win. Rob had overtaken Matt downwind to take third, Matt fourth, then Pete Purkiss who recovered well to take fifth. Race Ten: The signs weren’t good as the RS800s finished in a dying breeze. The breeze didn’t come back in and so racing was cancelled for the day. Congratulations to Theo for successfully defending his national champion title. There was excellent racing throughout the fleet with many new faces livening up the on the water battles. Thank you very much to the great team at WPNSA for being able to pull off such a strong racing event at such short notice. Thank you very much also to our generous sponsors Volvo, Noble Marine, Hyde Sails, RS Sailing and Rooster for supporting us so well. The lucky winner of the RS700 spinnaker generously donated by Hyde Sails was Andrew Wright from Queen Mary SC. Matthew Conner, also from Queen Mary SC, won the sports bag donated by Noble Marine. Apprentice: Liam Willis from Lymington Town SC Fidelis Trophy: Ian Swann from HISC 1st Silver: Graham Blake from Queen Mary SC Master: Jerry Wales from Windsport 5th: Matt Carter from Lancing SC 4th: Pete Purkiss from Brightlingsea SC 3rd: Rob Higgins from Chew Valley SC 2nd: Jerry Wales from Windsport 1st and National Champion: Theo Galyer from HISC #RS700sailing! #SailitLiveitLoveit #RoosterKit #InYourElement #RSsailing #HydeSails Our next event is the Rooster Inland Championship at Oxford Sailing Club 24-25 Oct. Event information here There is one space left at the informal coaching on Sat 17 Oct at Oxford SC. Contact [email protected] to grab your spot. Report by Rob Higgins Day four up on Y&Y here
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