Lots more photos at www.fotoboat.com.

Over the Years the RS classes have become used to great events being run by Grafham Water sailing club and this year it was no different, great race management from Peter Saxton and his team and great hospitality from the club. 

As well as a top quality fleet the weather also obliged with perfect winter conditions on Saturday and somewhat challenging conditions on Sunday morning.  Due to the forecast of the strong winds on Sunday the race team put on four races on Saturday.  The two races held on Sunday were just about as much, if not more than many folk could handle.

The racing on Saturday was all about finding the pressure.  The first race was a very close affair with Rob Jones, Jon Heissig and Jerry Wales all in with a shout but at the end it was Rob Jones who had the advantage of the starboard approach and inside rounding at the last leeward mark who took the win ahead of Wales.  The second race was all about Colin Dacey banging the right hand corner and not being seen again.  Rob Jones was again showing his class with a solid second place.

In race three Pete Perkiss hit the front, the right hand corner gain proving the shortest and quickest route to the top mark, he held on to win from Wales and Jones.  Race four was another close affair with Jones, Purkiss and Wales all in with a shout, but ultimately it was all about the last leeward mark.  Rob Jones approached the mark with a small lead and the starboard advantage but forgot he was sailing his RS700 and not the Blaze. He realised just a little to late he still had his spinnaker up, cocked up the drop and in doing so he also took Pete Purkiss wide of the mark (rule 18.4 I hear).  Purkiss was just able to get around Jones to the win ahead of Wales who managed to slip through inside of Jones who was still confused about why he had a spinnaker up at all.

As promised, Sunday was a frisky affair and all about some quality heavy weather sailing from Colin Dacey.  In the first race it was pretty close between the four around the first mark, but not wanting to be out done, Heissig, Jones and Wales performed a synchronised gybe and capsize leaving Colin Dacey an easy win � well it would have been if he had sailed around the right leeward mark.  It was left to Jones to take another win ahead of Heissig.   The final race was an initially close call up the first beat, Wales was round first followed by Dacey and Jones.   Wales took his customary rest in the disabled/Jerryatric parking spots and from then on Colin Dacey gave a fine display of how to sail a RS700 in very difficult conditions.  Where was Jones I hear you all say, well there was still some confusion about which boat he was in. the RS700 or Blaze.  Is it allowed to sail downwind (doggy or was it blaze style) without the spinnaker in an RS 700, we are just checking the rules. 

All in all a good weekend and great racing run brilliantly by Peter Saxton and the team from Grafham Water, but some questions remain:  Can anyone help Rob Jones with his spinnaker problems and has he peeked to soon, are the rumours true that Jon Heissig is retiring to a quite life in an RS 100 and is it fair that he is able to jog round Grafham Water before the rest of us got up � or maybe having moved to the Welsh hills he was sheep sick.  Finally is it dangerous to consume to many killer shrimp?