Results / Volvo Noble Marine National Championships Plymouth Youth Sailing, Mount Batten Centre - 21/08/2014

RS700 National Championships - Day 4 and Overall

Early gossip in the dinghy park on day 4 of the Volvo Noble Marine RS700 Nationals was suggesting that the front runners would be happy if the wind remained under the required 4 knots for racing to take place.  Wales had all but sewn up the event finishing day 3 on 7 points but a customary cock up resulting in a retirement meant he still had to go out on the last day.   The race for second was still on with only 5 points separating Neil Ashby on 18 points from Dave Smithwhite and last year’s victor

Robbie Bell both on 23 points.

True to form, Plymouth, the Mount Batten Centre and the folk from Plymouth Youth Sailing

delivered another excellent day’s sailing.  We were blessed with an oscillating 6 to 8 knot breeze, perhaps a chance for those who favoured the light stuff to take a turn at the front.  Race nine was a shoot out between those sitting in the top four positions at the end of day three.  Neil Ashby won the start, was first to the top mark and went on to take his second bullet of the event.  Behind him second was being fought over by Smithwhite, Bell and Wales with Richard Kennedy in the mix as well.  It was only one oscillation that allowed Wales past Smithwhite for second and it was perhaps that extra pasty that dragged Bell back to 4th.  Kennedy slipped back to 9th but is definately one for the future, well the distant future.  Jerry Wales now had his second National title won and Neil Ashby and Dave Smithwhite and Robbie Bell were safe in 2nd and 3rd and 4th respectively.

The final race could have been an anti-climax but all stayed out.  A big shift to the left in the final seconds of the start sequence resulted in significant bias towards the pin.  Spod Olive showed why he is a professional coach.  He may be lacking time in the boat but he controlled the fleet as only experts do, easily winning the start with that Kennedy bloke close on his hip but holding on to his lane.  Wales got spat out to the right, Ashby was forced out to the left but it was Dave Smithwhite who found a way through the traffic to lead at the top mark followed by the bunch including Olive, Kennedy and Wales.   By the finish Wales had managed to luck his way through to the front

followed by Smithwhite and Olive.

Overall it was an excellent Championship with a mix of conditions across the four days.  The form guide would have suggested that Bell, Ashby, Smithwhite, Nolan, Wales and recently crowned

European Champion, Simon Letten would be in the mix and so it turned out.  Smithwhite won the Masters trophy. Had luck gone their way Colin Dacey, Ian Swann and Alex Reid who all had moments of glory could have been fighting for the podium.  Man of the event was probably Richard Wadsworth. He was sailing the oldest boat, number 720, and showed good speed when the conditions suited.  He had a handful of individual race podiums and finished 5th overall winning the Silver division, but evermore in the Gold fleet.

Success of events are frequently determined by those not doing the sailing.  The race team lead by Keith Kendall did an excellent job running the event alongside the RS800s, not always a straightforward task.  Stuart Jones, Adrain Kemp and the team from Plymouth Youth Sailing both on shore and in the rescue boats were brilliant.  Many thanks to you all.

As always outgoing class Chairman Hamish Griffiths provided the majority of the fleet with GPS trackers, distributing, collecting and downloading each day.  We take it for granted but the effort required is immense.  Thank you to Hamish, Nikki and Millie.   It is worth having a look at the data when you get a chance.

Thank you to our sponsors Volvo, Noble Marine and RS.

Finally an event would not really be a proper event if Simon (current RS700 European Champion) and Richard from RS were not still packing up their kit and the spares van, still dressed in their sailing kit, probably still getting grief from a few of us well after most of us had left.  We take that for

granted too.

Clare - thank you.

Report by RS700 National Champion 2014 Jerry Wales

Results thanks to Stuart Jones

Photos by Tom Gruitt / www.tom-gruitt.co.uk

Tom will be publishing all the photos he took at the event online for purchasing soon.  Please click through the samples he has already given me which I have put at the top of this report.

Prize giving photos by Hamish Griffiths.  More at his Dropbox account: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ghscojk74r3g8ce/AACV03azOdqKfQ-6vr77GHKXa?dl=0

Ave Atque Vale DCC: from your outgoing Chair Hamish Griffiths

I’d like to welcome Neil Ashby as our new Class Chairman. Thanks to all RS700 sailors for putting up with me for the past 3 years but now you’ve got someone who can lead from the front! I hope everyone will give Neil as much support as you’ve given me; I feel a new enthusiasm developing in the Class and am looking forward to a great programme next year. Let’s all try to get as many 700s on the water for all events, we’ve got some really good ones for 2015 and it would be great to see some new faces (preferably behind me in the odd race or two) as well as some old friends back in the fold!

We’ve just has a fantastic National Championships hosted by Plymouth Youth Sailing at The Mount Batten Centre. We were lucky with the weather, managing to miss the traditional Bank Holiday Monday deluge, enjoying mixed conditions which allowed quite a few competitors to show strongly.

We deployed up to 13 Garmin GPS units on a mix of 16 boats over the four days. Track replays can be found at www.hamishgriffiths.com as usual with links to this report and a spreadsheet of top speeds. This last shows best speeds over 10 seconds and 500 metres as previously. Speedsters may like to explore the “Speed Stats” feature above each race replay to find top speeds over 1 second (the GPS units are sampling twice per second) to see how you maxed out.

If you go to www.gpsactionreplay.com you can download a trial version of the full application. All the raw files from the event are available on a link at the bottom of each replay page. Have a play; the full program has some very powerful analytics features not available on the web applet.

Many thanks to our generous lead sponsors Volvo and Noble Marine, your long-term support is very much appreciated.

See you all next year!

Hamish Griffiths

Day Three

Great day's sailing: 3 races with good wind and fun waves.  Then BBQ with fabulous singer Celine.

Day Two

Variable conditions greeted competitors for the second day of the Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championships.  The shifty north westerly breeze varied between 4 and 22 knots across the day. Three races were run with three different winners.

In the first race Ian Swann took a port flyer and initially led the fleet but at the windward mark it was Jerry Wales leading with Ian Swann second coming into the windward mark from the left hand side of the course.  Places changed regularly on the second beat and the following downwind leg.  At the finish it was Jerry Wales first, Ian Swann second and Simon Letten third.

The wind was light for the first two laps of the second race.  Jerry Wales and Dave Smithwhite rounded the windward mark together with Wales overtaking Smithwhite on the first leg to the spacer mark.  These two pulled away from the fleet on the downwind leg.  On the second beat Smithwhite and Wales split tacks with Smithwhite going further to the right hand side of the course and picking up a shift to the right and going into the lead.  Robbie Bell, last year’s national champion pulled up to third and these positions were held to the end of the race.

There was more breeze for the last race of the day, however it was very shifty.  Boats arrived at the windward mark in the top ten from both the left and the right hand sides of the course with Neil Ashby showing the fleet the way round and holding an impressive lead.  Richard Wadsworth rounded in second place.  There were several capsizes on the downwind and much place changing on the second beat.  By the finish Jerry Wales pulled through to second behind Neil Ashby and Richard Wadsworth.

The top five after three races are:

1^st Jerry Wales 5pts

2^nd Neil Ashby 15pts

3^rd Dave Smithwhite 16pts

4^th Ian Nolan 17pts

5^th Simon Letten 17pts

Report by Dave Smithwhite

Results thanks to Stuart Jones

Photos by Tom Gruitt / www.tom-gruitt.co.uk

Day One

The Volvo Noble Marine RS700 National Championships started today with a breezy forecast.  Everybody went out wrapped up (which was just as well) and had a great day on the water. 

First start first race Neil Ashby and Jerry Wales got off the line first.  We went left up the first beat and pulled a lead out on the rest of the fleet.  Downwind was a lively event.  Jerry rounded first with Neil second, closely followed by Richard Wadsworth and Ian Nolan.  The next beat was a tussle between the four of us with the end result that Jerry pulled out the lead.  On the third lap there was a huge wind shift and those of us on the left hand side of the course lost out: Neil and Robbie Bell.  This meant that Simon Letten, Richard Wadsworth and Ian Nolan flew up the right hand side not to be caught.

Second race Dave Smithwhite had the best start and headed off left to the cliffs.  We all tacked onto port to head towards to top mark which was a struggle to find.  Jerry was first, Ian was second and Neil was third.  Neil overtook Ian downwind going over the top of him with the kite up which is how it stayed for the next two laps with Alex Reid making an appearance in the top five as well.  Kite block failure for Neil on the last drop let Alex get his first second at a National Champs and Ian took third with Neil in fourth.

All in all a tough day’s racing with long legs.  Summer has definitely gone!

Report by Neil Ashby