Congratulations to Pete Purkiss

RS700 Inland Champion for 2016!

RS700 Magic Marine Inland Championship, Queen Mary SC 8-9 Oct 16 – final and deciding event of RS700 Magic Marine Grand Prix 2016

This year’s Magic Marine Inland Championship, held at Queen Mary Sailing Club 8-9 Oct 16, also served as the final event of the 2016 Magic Marine Grand Prix Circuit.  The home RS700 fleet was augmented by the travelling support of the “usual suspects” so the Championship drew a healthy fleet of 12 boats.   With both the Inland Championship Trophy and Magic Marine Grand Prix Trophy (with some very generous sponsorship!) to compete for, the sailors eagerly anticipated the racing along with the usual bout of catching up with old friends in the boat park.

Day 1

There was a noticeable change in temperature from the recent National Championship, with sailors starting to layer up a little more albeit the wind was only a Northerly F2-3.  The first 2 races took place in relatively light and shifty conditions.  In these partial trapezing conditions big gains were available for spotting the wind shifts, maintaining boat speed and an occasional spot of luck.  Colin Dacey laid down the gauntlet from the off - winning the first race and following it up with a 3^rd and 2^nd, whilst Pete Purkiss was his next closest challenger with a 2^nd, 1^st and 4^th.  Other good individual race results went to the chasing pack, but consistency was difficult to achieve in the conditions.  Colin could have recorded a second win in the final race of the day if he could only count to 4… breaking for the finish line on lap 3 he allowed Richard Wadsworth through to take the race win.    

Day 2

The wind forecast for day 2 looked slightly more promising than the previous day.  Whilst the wind remained very gusty and variable, the first 2 races were held in a F3-4 and Pete began to show the rest of the fleet a clean pair of heels with two race wins.  Richard also showed some good speed in these conditions achieving a 2^nd place in the first race and leading for the majority of the second race… he clearly went to the same engineering school of mathematics as Colin when he went for the finish line on lap 3 (of 4!) and handed the win to Pete.  Despite the forecast for a building wind strength, the wind dropped to a F2 for the last race with Colin taking the race win and Graham Blake showing some great speed to take 2^nd and Pete taking 3^rd.

Overall Pete Purkiss won the Inland Championship, with Colin Dacey in 2^nd and Richard Wadsworth in 3^rd place. 

With only 3 event to count, the Magic Marine Grand Prix Circuit results were tight at the top, which sent Richard into a flat spin as he tried to work out how to break the tie between Pete and Colin, and Ian Nolan and Spike Daniels during the presentation (Clare - this is his excuse for not taking any pictures!).  In the end Richard Wadsworth won the overall Magic Marine Grand Prix, with Pete Purkiss 2^nd, Colin Dacey 3^rd and Ian Nolan 4^th.  Click here for the full results.

The Inland Championship was a great success: I’d like to thank Queen Mary Sailing Club for their hospitality and race coordination over the weekend.  I’d also like to say a huge thank you to Magic Marine for their very generous sponsorship of the Grand Prix. 

Next year’s calendar will be released imminently and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on this fun and competitive circuit!

By Richard Wadsworth

UK RS700 Class Association Chairman

Photos thanks to Queen Mary SC