Results / Gul RS700 National Championships Hayling Island SC - 26/08/2003

Day 1 Hayling Island is the venue for the third Nationals Championships for the RS700 this week. With most of the fleet assembling on Bank Holiday Monday for setting up and a spot of practice, talk was of a windy week. Light winds and a sloppy Hayling Bay greeted the 48 competitors however, for the first days racing. Normally light winds mix the fleets up a bit, but today was a day of two, almost identical halves. Nick Rizzi from the home club, gave the rest of the fleet a sailing lesson winning both races by a considerable margin. Jason Beben, normally expected to do well in the light stuff, had uncharacteristically poor starts to both races, although he managed to pull the cat out of the bag through to second place both times. Third place was the wild card slot in the top six, and Steve Tylecote filled this in the first race, and also finished seventh in the second race. The 2001 National Champion Neil Robinson, managed to come back from an 11th in the first race, to take the 3rd place in the second. The next three slots were identical in both races, with last years runner up Andy White going well in the light stuff to finish with two fourths. Andy Irons, a relative newcomer to the fleet had a good day also, with two fifths, and Paul Bayliss, defending champion, had a fair to middling day with two sixths. With the promise of more wind sure to materialise over the next few days, its all open and there�ll be a few more names in these reports before these championships are done! Day 3 Enough of the sun� Summer ended at Hayling Island today, but the wind kept up. 20 knots of cold and shifty north-easterly created a lumpy Hayling bay, with rain squalls taking some of the gusts up to 30 knots recorded by the committee boat. This ultimately led to the second race of the day being abandoned, when the visibility and conditions had deteriorated beyond the reasonable. Paul Bayliss picked up where he left off yesterday, with another emphatic race win, although Andy White and Neil Robinson led the charge to catch him. These two had a race long battle, with Robinson sneaking the advantage at the finish. Whilst Bayliss consolidated his overall championship lead to four points, Robinson moves up to second place, with White tied on points, but third overall by virtue of the tiebreak. Fourth in today�s challenging race was Ian Gorringe who sailed a blinder and in doing so, takes the lead in the Silver fleet. Fifth was Neil Upton Brown who continues to show that you don�t necessarily have to be big to sail an RS700 fast in breeze and waves. Andy Irons continued to put together a consistent set of results, with a sixth, to consolidate his firth position overall. Jason Belben keeps his fourth place overall with some superb heavy weather sailing yet again, finishing a slightly unlucky 7th today. Halfway through the championships, it�s still all to play for, and if the wind keeps up, anything can still happen. But who�s going to stop the Bayliss, Robinson, White three horse race that continues to be played out in the front? Day 4 After yesterdays exertions, and a missed race (called off due to a squall of demonic proportions), competitors were dismayed to see another day dawn with torrential rain and 20+ knot winds. Fortunately for those who found the previous days rather windy, the wind abated before racing to an entirely more reasonable 15 knots, and so battle commenced. Race 7 was a wake-up call for many people whose minds were still in bed. A strong west going tide coupled with a significant wind shift to the west, caught dozens of boats out, who were then reaching into the windward mark on port. Nigel King, sometime Ellen MacArthur crewmate was first round the mark, finding the right gears in the 700 at last. Second and third place overall, Andy White and Neil Robinson were amongst the next few round, but Championship leader Bayliss was down in the pack. King was still trying to work out how the coloured flappy thing at the front worked as White and Robinson whizzed past, meanwhile like some sort of Houdini act, Bayliss then managed to extract himself from oblivion, and found the gust from heaven down the middle of the run. With White and Robinson, along with Andy Peake rounding the unfavoured leeward mark in the gate, Bayliss set off after Jason Belben up the beat. Spotting another monster shift, and remembering the tide, Bayliss tacked early, and to everybody�s disgust rounded the windward mark in the lead which he held to the finish. He was followed in by White, Peake, and Belben, whilst Robinson had sunk to fifth. Race 8 saw the three points leaders battling it out again. Robinson established an early lead, and was challenged through the race by White. Tim Dickinson was also up there in third place, whilst Bayliss was paying the price of being conservative, and was once again following Belben around the course.. Going into the last lap, it was all a White / Robinson show, with Bayliss getting through to third. Going into the run to the finish, Bayliss received a gift in the form of the two leaders splitting and banging opposite corners. The best wind however, was to be found in the middle of the course, and once again, White and Robinson lost out in the closing stages of the race, with Bayliss winning, a rather agitated Robinson in second, White in third, and Belben again in fourth. Behind this pack were Tony Freer in fifth, at last showing some of the speed he has promised for some time, and Steve Tylecote, welcoming the more relaxed conditions in sixth. Race 6 was re-sailed following this, and with the wind and tide dying, it was going to prove to be more like the first days light wind racing - slow and processional. Robinson, having castigated himself (and his boat) for his earlier mistakes, was making none this time, and led from start to finish, keeping his hopes of the championship alive. Ben Oakley showed a timely return to form by finishing in second place, and Neil Upton-Brown was also taking advantage of the lighter winds to take third. With Bayliss in fourth, Peake in fifth, and Belben again in sixth, White has all but blown his chances of the series. Only an exemplary day and a complete disaster by Robinson and Bayliss could see him take the championship that he has twice finished as runner-up. So it�s down to the latter two to see who can prevail. Bayliss can take the title with a single top three finish, in the final two races. If he fails to do this, and Robinson can summon up some of his magic to score a couple of top two results, its all there for the taking. Seconds away, round five ���. Day 5 You can�t have it all your own way. Following 2 days of wind and rain and cold, the final day of the RS700 Nationals dawned gloriously sunny and warm. Unfortunately the wind wasn�t joining the party. Three winds, from the NE, NW and SW spent the day fighting each other for supremacy, with �interesting� results. Going into the final two races, defending champion Paul Bayliss was 7 points in the lead courtesy of a purple patch in the windy middle of the week, when he scored 5 bullets in a row. However, both Neil Robinson and Andy White could still theoretically still snatch the title, and Hayling Bay in a northerly is just the place to deliver surprises�. The first race of the day was started at the second attempt, and Robinson shot out of the pin end of the line demonstrating his intentions not to give up without a good fight. Unfortunately for him however, the sea breeze towards which he was sailing, just didn�t quite arrive, and Robinson sat in a hole in the wind, effectively ending his hopes of overall victory. Meanwhile, Neil Upton-Brown established an early lead, hotly pursued by Bayliss, White and Jason Belben. Belben then sailed a magnificent race, to take victory from Ben Oakley, with a slightly unlucky Upton-Brown in third. Bayliss finished fourth, which was enough to give him victory with a race to spare, and Leigh Albrecht from Queen Mary SC scored a fifth, his best result of the championships, which was the same for Buzz Keck who finished a glorious sixth. The final race of the series was also one of the most difficult. The early series leader Nick Rizzi established an early lead, which he then threw away by not knowing the number of rounds to be sailed. Tim Dickinson seized his chance and ran away with the race, a hugely popular win. Neil Robinson consolidated his second position overall with a second place, whilst Rizzi came home third. Ben Oakley finished a solid day with a fourth, and Andy White made sure of third overall with fifth. So overall Bayliss wins his second championship in the RS700 with clever sailing and good overall speed, but blistering pace in the stronger breezes. Neil Robinson was always going to be a real challenger for the title, but just couldn�t match Bayliss�s boat handling and tactics in the breeze. Andy White will be slightly disappointed with his third place, as he knows he has the capability to win on his day, and Jason Belben despite sailing his socks off in the stronger winds, couldn�t convert this into a consistent enough series. Neil Upton-Brown sailed the oldest boat in the fleet to fifth place, mounting a late charge up the leader board. Likewise Ben Oakley ended the week with some top results but just couldn�t get going in the early part of the series. The very deserving winner of the silver fleet was Leigh Albrecht, who has been improving dramatically in the RS700 all season and on his day is right up there when it matters. Popular winner of the �Masters� category was Nick Rizzi, and who could forget the look on his face in day one when he scored two bullets to take an early championship lead. A hugely successful week, some of the most exciting single handed racing on offer, conditions to suit everybody, and with masterful race officering by Peter Wareham, the event was capped with a fantastic party in the new Hayling clubhouse. Thanks HISC, we�ll be back�..