GUL RS Nationals Day 6

Gul RS National Championships- Day 1 Title sponsor- Gul International Associate sponsor- Jeep Following a day during which the coastguard warned sailors to stay off the water, the first day of the second leg of the RS National Championships at Mounts Bay was unexpectedly sunny, with 7 knots of breeze. Rain was forecast for the afternoon, which never arrived. The light and fickle wind provided challenging racing for the RS400, 700, and 800 fleets, who each sailed two races. RS700 This is the first appearance by the RS700 at the Nationals and, for a boat that has only been on the water since April, there was a healthy turn out of 17. With fierce competition at the front, much depended on smooth spinnaker handling. Ben Oakley had a cracking start to the event with two bullets, closely followed by Steve Norbury, with a 3rd and 2nd, and Neil Robinson, with a 2nd and 5th. The points are close tonight, reflecting the high standard of competition on the water. Paul Lewis described the racing as �intense sailing�. With positions hard fought for, the 700s promise to provide a week of exciting racing. RS800 The RS800 fleet has demonstrated an increasingly high standard of sailing and close competition on the circuit this year, so there were a number of �favourites� going into the Nationals. The pressure was on Hyde Sails, sailed by Richard Lovering and Richard Kent, following their phenomenal 6 bullets at Hayling Island, however, following a bad start on the first race, they ended the day with a 22nd and 5th. The day belonged to Michael Lennon and Craig Davies, who got a bullet in the first race, and were just beaten by Nick Peters on the last beat of the second race, finishing second, and first overall. David and Fiona Sayce had a good day, with a 2nd and 3rd, placing them only two points behind Lennon and Davies. With only 3 points between 3rd and 6th place, Lennon and Davies will have to work hard to defend their position. RS400 The RS400 nationals at Mounts Bay kicked off in glorious sunny conditions but with light and variable breeze. A Southerly force 1-2 that was swinging through 30 degrees greeted the 105 strong fleet as they sailed out into Mounts Bay to the race area set in full view of Lord St Levan upon Saint Micheal's Mount. The start of the first race, slightly delayed while the breeze swung , indicated that more of the fleet should have attended Roger Gilbert's pre race seminar on gate starts. The quality of the vast majority of the fleets starts can be described, at best, as poor, with not many of the fleet getting anywhere near the transom of the gate boat. Those boats that did get good starts were many of the pre race favourites who predictably all started early, but having started early they were all forced left and as the pathfinder, international jet setter Richard Catchpole, sailing with Alan Woosey, got lifted higher and higher it became abundantly clear that those starting late would be occupying the top positions even if they did not make fantastic starts. Andrew Fox and Simon Birchall took full advantage of starting late and showed that the right hand side of the course was the place to be and rounded the windward mark first. Carl and Julie Mayhew rounded second followed by Giles and Heather Chipperfield. The leading boats set off down the run to the right and Giles Chipperfield took the opportunity to gybe early and take the lead down the left hand side of the course in slightly more breeze. It was a lead he was to hold to the end of the shortened 2 lap race, giving the ecstatic Chipperfields their first ever championship race win. He was followed in by Chris Jennings and Ed Nicklin, who showed good speed in the light breeze, however an incident in the second race with the pathfinder resulted in disqualification leaving this usually consistent performer well down the fleet after the first day. Richard Fox who maintained his positioned at the top of the fleet well, finished 3rd. With breeze going to the right Richard Catchpole was always going to come out of the first beat reasonably well but in the end he did not go far enough right to round the windward mark in the top 10, he therefore did well to finish the race in 6th place behind Carl Mayhew. The second race was delayed for a while as the breeze threatened to drop off to nothing, however enough of a breeze appeared for the race officer to send Stewart and Ben Robertson on their pathfinder run. A lot of the fleet, having been burnt starting early on the previous start decided to start late. This again proved to be the wrong choice as Stewart got knocked badly and many of the fleet found themselves to windward of the pathfinder. The start was eventually abandoned, as Stewart was forced to duck under a number of boats running back to the start, much to the disappointment of the boats who had started early!. The restart was much more even and those boats that started early looked good for a while but the right hand side of the course became favoured as the breeze swung that way. Louise McKeand and Nigel Hall picked this shift and rounded the windward mark first followed by Dave Exley and Caroline Fisher. Third round was Robbie Wilson and Jenny Dick who was the first boat to gybe and therefore took the lead on the favoured left hand side of the course. This gave him a lead that he was to hold to the finish of the race that was again shortened to 2 laps, a considerable improvement on his 58th in the first race!. Louise maintained her position well only dropping the 1 place to 2nd and leaving her 4th overall. Pete and Jo Allam sailed a solid race to finish 3rd in front of Dave Exley 4th and Colin and Sarah Smith , 5th. With the breeze so shifty consistent performers were always going to do well overall but consistency was always going to be hard to come by and this is reflected by the high scoring for the day. Last years national champions Roger Gilbert and James Stewart did not have a good day with Roger pointing out that he had more points in his best race today (20th) than he did in the entire series at last years nationals!. Many of the other big names from the circuit did not find there way into the top 10 on this opening day. The sailors from Leigh and Lowton SC showed that they had the ability to remain at the top of the fleet, with 3 boats in the top 5. Richard Catchpole with a 6th and 8th leads over night with Andrew Fox in second on 17 points. Stewart Robertson's consistent day puts him in third. Richard Cain and Alan hhHKpJHHVFfgyghhgghhghgjjfcxv Hickman from Starcross are 5th. After the first day a number of people have filed their discards already but with another 8 races scheduled and breeze forecast for the next couple of days anything could happen. Overall positions after 1 day RS400 1st 1007 Richard Catchpole & Alan Woosey 14pts 2nd 1051 Andrew Fox & Simon Birchall 17pts 3rd 1044 Stewart Robertson & Ben Robertson 17pts 4th 891 Louise McKeand & Nigel Hall 18pts 5th 411 Richard Cain & Alan Hickman 18pts 6th 1102 Jon Gorringe & Toby Lewis 23pts 7th 921 Giles Chipperfield & Heather Chipperfield 25pts 8th 946 Charlie Duchesne & Dan Sanders 30pts 9th 816 Peter Allam & Jo Allam 31pts 10th 802 Peter Vincent & Peter Cruikshank 32pts RS700 1st 714 Ben Oakley 2pts 2nd 745 Steve Norbury 5pts 3rd 744 Neil Robinson 7pts 4th 716 Carl Vining 8pts 5th 741 Andy White 9pts 6th 706 Gerard Hughes 11 pts 7th 707 Paul Lewis 18pts 8th 712 Gareth Morgen 19pts 9th 724 Russell Belben 19pts 10th 708 Steve Stubbs 20pts RS800 1st 927 Michael Lennon & Craig Davies 3pts 2nd 835 David Sayce & Fiona Sayce 5pts 3rd 871 Geoff Carveth & Jim Dean 10pts 4th 874 Tim Johnson & Laura Chapman 11pts 5th 894 Tracey Covell & Vanda Zadorozny 12pts 6th 821 Matthew Larkin & Geoff Larkin 13pts 7th 853 Mike Speller & Rob Burridge 20pts 8th 935 Lee Sydenham & Anne Vaudry 21pts 9th 934 Richard Lovering & Richard Kent 27pts 10th 932 Ricky Tagg & Steve Greaves 30pts