Given the forecast of extreme winds and single figure temperatures it was good to see a total of 9 hardy souls arrive at Rutland SC for the Inlands. It was also great to see that amongst some of the regulars there were two new faces in the form of Milly and Alex who were attending their first 700 event (what a choice!), welcome to the fleet.

Saturday was blowing upwards of 28 Knots, the race officer in his wisdom decided that it was perfectly sailable, well it may have been, but not for the majority of 700 sailors who (in my opinion) wisely decided to stay on shore for activities that included, keeping warm, drinking tea and keeping warm, not to mention the occasional bimble when thawed out fingers would allow. Whilst the sensible (some say cowardly) remained on shore, Alex (‘heavy’ weather specialist) Newton-Southon and Jon (travelled from Wales so couldn’t justify not going sailing) Heissig took to the water, much to the spectators delight.

The Race Officer had set the course a mile to the North East of the club, the 700’s sharing the outer loop with the 600’s. The breeze was still up around the 30 knot mark as John and Alex had an exciting reach out to the committee boat, it’s fair to say it was difficult viewing from the dinghy park, an upturned 700 hull isn’t that visible at such distances, however we did manage to see Jon command a good lead from the start of the first race, Alex generously deciding to capsize before the gun to give Mr Heissig a few minutes head start, Alex soon started chasing with blistering speed, but unfortunately this speed was punctuated with a couple of capsizes, enough to force Alex in to retirement for fear of a breakage  giving Jon the opportunity to pedestrianize his pace and complete the course.

Jon stayed out for the second race as the only 700 having a lonely, yet still challenging sail around the race course. Day 1 ends and Jon has two bullets against his name, Alex getting a DNF and everyone else scoring DNC’s.  Alex spent the rest of the day travelling to Wales for the start of his holiday explaining to his wife why it had been a good idea to go all the way to Rutland with the boat for a 45 minute battering.

Day 2 and the breeze had calmed down a little bit to somewhere between a ‘steady’ force 3-5, the significant drop from the previous day encouraged everyone afloat and down to the Dam where the Committee boat was located for the West-South-West breeze. Given the distance to the start area, only a handful of boats made the first start for the gun, with a line that was big enough for 60 200’s we had plenty of options, however the pin end seemed to favour for most of the day resulting in some nip and tuck pre-start action.

Jon Heissig started as he’d left off the previous day, leading the first race from start to finish, with some close combat for the podium positions. Alex Young made it round the course in impressive style for his first event.

After a long wait for the 200’s to finish pottering around their course race 4 (2 of the day) got underway with Heissig, Powell, Bell and Dacey all very close around the windward mark, Robbie gained on Jon downwind to get the inside edge before the gybe, sadly his talent ran out at that stage (falling over) and Jon maintained the lead closely followed by Steve and Colin with James, Graham and Alex fighting for 5^th. Robbie recovered to get back in to third whilst Jon extended his lead on the scoreboard.

Race 5 and Milly made it out to the start line after some practise sailing near the club. Steve (pretty laid back) Powell showed that he could be quick when he was bothered, however he wasn’t interested enough to challenge Jon and decided to stop for a spot of trawling allowing Colin (consistently quick) Dacey to cruise through and post another very good result, his best of the weekend. James, Graham, Robbie and Alex all decided to have a ‘capsize off’ seeing who could spend the most time upside down during the race, James won this leaving Graham to take 4^th, Robbie 5^th and Alex 6^th

Race 6 and we all improved our results by at least a place, mostly because Heissig had already scored 5 bullets and didn’t want to overdo it, so headed for shore. Powell Led from the start closely followed by James, Colin and Robbie, James got a bit excited at his unexpected front row seat around the windward mark and decided to have an early dip graciously allowing the rest of the fleet past, lots of place changing throughout the race leading to a comfortable first for Steve.

All in all, some excellent sailing over the weekend with plenty of action, lots of pace and some stories to tell. Congratulations to Jon for winning the Inland title, having demonstrated his skill and bravery all weekend and to James for capsizing the most.

Our thanks to Rutland Water Sailing Club, their team of race officers and safety boat drivers for putting in a great effort given the difficult conditions.