RS700 2009 Circuit

Chew Valley Lake SC

March 14^th & 15^th

The first event of the 2009 season kicked off at Chew Valley over the weekend.  The event was interesting as we shared a start with the Musto Skiff fleet which allowed some interesting boat on boat comparisons on the water.

Race one started in a shifty and gusty f2-4 westerly which proved particularly challenging to the coastal sailors in the fleet. The conmpetitors split across the course trying to find the most effective route up the beat, with Ian Nolan coming in from the left looking good until the first of a number of windward capsizes put him to the back.  Jon Heissig eventually took the lead after initially being buried in the pack, which he held to the finish followed by Rob Jones and Steve Marshall.

The second race of the day saw Rob Jones discovering a personal lift on the right hand side of the first beat to lead at the windward mark.  However it was again Jon Heissig who worked his way through and took the win from local sailor Rob Higgins who was showing great boat speed and excellent local knowledge.  A very close battle for third saw Rob Jones and Steve Marshall in a gybing dual to the finish which Rob just took after ragging the kite to duck Steve’s transom and take the place on the line.

Race 3 saw Jon lead at the windward mark closely followed by Rob Jones.  These two quickly gapped the fleet as a gust shot them down the first run, a lead they would never surrender.  Rob shaddowed Jon but was never able to really challenge whilst the best of the rest were Steve Marshall followed by Rob H.

With a very poor forecast for Sunday the Race Officer had prearranged a fourth race on the Saturday.  With the fleet going left, it was Ian Nolan recovering from a poor start who went right and was then lifted beautifully up to lead at the windward mark.  Rob Jones was next to spot the shift and followed intot he mark and then managed to take the lead at the wing mark making the best of the very patchy conditions.  Jon Heissig challenged Rob for the lead throughout the race and just managed to get by at the last windward mark.  However Rob managed to repass just before the leeward mark, to sail a very nervous reach into the finish for his first ever race win in an RS700 event.

Sunday dawned a beautiful sunny but windless day.  The fleet took advantage of this to do some bumbling and generally relax in the sunshine and with no sign of change the decision was made at midday to call it a day in time for the Rugby.  

Congratulations to Jon Heissig for again showing us the way around the course and to Chew Valley for being excellent hosts.  Local sailor Rob Higgins sailing with a borrowed mast deservedly took the silver fleet prize.  The first Duckhams award of the season must go to Rob Jones who found that at some stage two additional sets of holes had been drilled into his racks, in-board of hole one, probably to accommodate some intermediates.  As a result, since he joined the fleet he has been sailing with wings two holes narrower than required.  Having said that Rob’s been going pretty quickly so with the extra power he may well have the last laugh!

The circuit continues in a month’s time with the next event scheduled at Hayling Island on the 18/19 April. 

In the mean time we have two coaching events scheduled for the 4^th April with a Newcomer’s event at Carsington run by Jon Heissig and an Intermediate session led by 2008 circuit winner Matt Humphreys at Hayling Island .

Cheers and Good Sailing