RS200 Sailing Chandlery EaSEA Tour at Shoreham

2nd September 2023

By Richard Thomas

Ten RS200s arrived at Shoreham SC for the latest instalment of the EaSEA Tour. There was plenty of sun but not much wind, and with a strong spring tide running the fleet settled in for a long delay ashore. But the race officer had other ideas and got us launched after only a short postponement, with several boats being towed out of the harbour. It turned out the race officer knew what he was doing, with a light but solid breeze filling in allowing us to go racing.

James Morson & Fiona Harrington and Andrew Wishart & Nina Luckmann got away early in the first race and never looked back, with James Fiona taking the win. Tom Goodey & Richard Thomas followed in third.

Following a short delay as the wind swing left, Nigel Bird & Andy Bird found their speed. There seemed to be more wind out to sea, and finding the extra breeze offshore generally paid despite beating into the tide. Nigel Andy took two race wins, with Andrew Barnett & Lynne Radcliffe coming second in race two. Andrew/Nina’s consistency showed with a third and a second.

The final race was a single lap held in dying breeze. Mark Oakey & Jess Smith found what little wind there was and rounded the windward mark first. They held their lead all the way to the finish. A few boats were in danger of drifting past the leeward gate. Tom/Richard dropped their spinnaker early and just managed to sneak past Andrew Nina on the downwind. That ensured that Nigel and Andy just won a very close event on countback, with Andrew/Nina second and Tom/Richard third.

A huge thank you to Shoreham SC, who both made the fleet incredibly welcome and somehow managed to get all the scheduled racing in on a difficult day for the race officer.

The final event of this year’s Sailing Chandlery EaSEA Tour is the inlands at Grafham on 30^th September – 1^st October. Online entry is open here.