Gul RS400 Nationals

Report from the first two days in Looe

For those that know Looe it should come as no surprise that the fleet has so far enjoyed two awesome days sailing on one of the greatest stretches of water in the country. Any venue that has a greasy spoon café and a night club in the boat is park is always going to keep most people happy. With the addition of some great winds and more forecast the recipe is there for a memorable event. The competition so far has been close both on the water and in the bar for the Duckhams.

The first days sailing was held on Sunday and with the civilised start time of 1 o’clock most were able to recover from the obligatory over exuberance in ‘Admiral Boscarn’s’ night club the evening before. Clear blue skies and a force 4 with a rolling sea meant the fleet were in for a good day in the type of conditions these boats were designed for. Craig Burlton and Andrew Bonsey are an early Duckhams nomination by arriving at the windward mark first before bearing away hard away and flying off down the run, only to see the pairing of Stuart Hudson and Adam Heeley carry on to the stretcher mark. Hudson made no mistakes to sail on and lead the fleet home. Chris Jennings and Ed Nicklin worked hard to take second after being pushed all the way by a recovering Craig Burlton in third. Current national champion and hotly tipped favourite for the event, Roger Gilbert, lead the rest of the fleet home in fourth.

Race two and another event favourite, Nic Craig was the gate boat. That and the fact the wind began to veer to the right hand side meant most of the fleet started late. Nic Craig made his advantage count and hit the right hand corner before tacking and leading the fleet to the windward mark. Roger Gilbert wasn’t far before and showed championship wining boat speed to haul Nic in and steal the win. Nick Freeman put in a good performance to take third followed by fellow Parkstone member Stuart Hudson.

Day two and the fleet awoke to more good wind even if this time it was accompanied by sideways rain and mist. The race officer’s excuse that he could take the committee boat out during the morning because the sea was a bit bumpy meant that the fleet was going no where till the tide came back in the committee boat was back off the bottom. By the time the fleet got away the wind had swung from the previous night’s direction so that all had to contend with surfing down waves while beating up wind. Nic Craig and Keith Bedborough had no problems though as they powered on to build an unassailable lead and take their first win on the championship. Nick Freeman continued a good run of form with a second place followed by Roger Gilbert in third and Burlton fourth.