RS400s at Lake Como

Ever wondered why RS racing is so popular? Matthew Bailey's report goes some way to explain

For the second RS Eurocup event of the year, 115 RS boats headed to the beautiful shores of Lake Como for a week of sailing and socialising in the sun, expertly hosted by Centro Velo Alto Lario, Gravedona. The relatively small RS400 fleet of 13 boats actually provided some of the closest racing of the week, as almost all boats led a race at some point.

Many sailors arrived on the weekend prior to the first races on Monday, and as the boat park filled up, excitement grew, as did speculation over whether the Racing Snake would manage to actually race this time. Due to the high spirits, the apres-sail started early and provided the locals with some entertainment RS style.

Scorching sunshine on Monday morning led the fleet to hope for a good thermal, but after an hour of diving in and swimming in a total calm, the race committee wisely decided to call it a day. An early finish meant an early start in the bar and by 3 o’clock in the morning most of Gravedona and the campsite were learning a few new choice tunes with some lovely lyrics all courtesy of John Callaghan’s rather un-orthodox Barbershop quartet.

The promised thermals kicked in on Tuesday allowing the race committee to fit in three races. Race one, and on the first beat Mark Littlejohn & Lucy Newman made the best of the shifts up the left side to lead to the windward mark, closely followed by John Cooper & Becci Wigley. However, Giles & Heather Chipperfield showed awesome speed and overtook both boats downwind to take the race.

The second race began in slightly more breeze. Phil Jackson & Gerrard Barron along with Chris & Matt Bailey made good starts from the port end to take advantage of the favoured left hand side of the course. However, both overstood the windward mark allowing the Chipperfields to creep up from below on the long drag into the mark. Jackson/Baron did well to hold on to lead at the windward mark and sailed on un-challenged to win the race. Most of the place changing happened on the tactical and tricky final broad reach. Cooper & Wigley sailed from 6th at the leeward mark to finish 2nd whilst Adam Oliver & Clare Fowler dropped from 2nd to 5th. The Brothers Grim held their position throughout race to finish 3rd. (Showing they don’t sink every boat they get in).

Race 3 and Littlejohn decided to wrap his boat around the pin end of the start line allowing Giles and Heather Chipperfield and The Brothers Grim to win the favoured port end. The Chipperfields were first to the windward mark, closely followed by an on form Ian Robson & Sandy Johnson and the Baileys. Robson kindly decided not to respond to the Chipperfields luffing on the top reach thus taking the Chipperfields out, and leaving himself dizzy with turns. His day got worse as he nearly picked up another set following one turn that nearly went through the side of Barron/Jackson. This allowed the lardy Brothers Grim to sail over the pair and lead to the finish. The Chipperfield’s managed to hold second with Oliver/Fowler a respectable third. On arrival ashore Mark Littlejohn found the reason for his 2,9,10 score line: Despite being a top coach he still hadn’t got the hang of putting his bung in.

You know you’re in trouble when you’re told off by Pete ‘Mines-a-rum’ Vincent and John ‘36hr-bender’ Callaghan, and that’s how the fleet felt as all were summoned to a special briefing and told to start behaving in town. As such the fleet duly obliged and for one night Gravedona was subject to restrained drinking and sophisticated chit chat.

Race 4, and perhaps as punishment for previous nights antics, the race officer set a incredibly long beat in a steady force 3. The fleet had the entertainment of watching almost half of the 200 fleet throw away their discards as the race committee demonstrated their eagle eyed ability to identify premature starters rather than call for a general recall and disqualified half the fleet. The 400’s got away cleanly and again the Chipperfields showed the fleet the way to go to take their second race win, closely followed by a now-floating Littlejohn/Newman. John Callaghan looked likely to figure at the front for the first time until he turned the Racing Snake into an eel by capsizing onto the windward mark. Jackson/Barron added to their consistent set of results with a third.

You would think that the fleet might have learned from the 200’s on the previous start but they showed their short memories by flying out of the line early leaving only Jackson/Barron behind the line. The 5 most guilty boats re-crossed the line meaning that 7 OCS’s were still awarded. The top 3 boats on the water were Cooper/Wigley, Littlejohn/Newman and Martin Gunn & Stephanie Pilkington but as all 3 were OCS the win yet again went to the Chipperfields. The Baileys were promoted to 2nd, whilst Jackson/Barron who had at one point been in last place, were awarded 3rd.

Wednesday night began with a meal laid on by the sailing club along with an excellent local band who entertained the fleet with their own unique versions of well known English songs. However, Wednesday night will more likely be remembered by all those sailors who were camping or had the unfortunate luck to be out when the most spectacular hail/rain/snow/ thunder/lightning storm hit Gravedona. The ever charitable John Callaghan took pity on several soaked revellers by allowing them shelter in his camper van provided that they first strip to their pants and then drank till 8 o’clock the next morning. The impromptu RS pant party will live long in the memory especially as the association video camera was finally put to some good use (even if all that sailing had to be recorded over). Thursday morning saw local hotel owners rubbing their hands in glee as soaked campers abandoned their mud swept tents.

Following the previous nights storms, the usually reliable thermal breeze failed to arrive and the race committee decided to start a race in the opposite direction to normal. With the wind swinging through 70 degrees there was some amazing last to first place changes before the race committee finally decided to abandon.

Thursday night and the sailing club finally remembered to lay on the cocktail evening. Following a few glasses of Sangria, a quick exit was made back to Bar Centrale and the usual copious amounts of rum and coke.

By Friday morning the wind was back blowing in the correct direction and fleet headed out expecting some great racing. However shortly after the start of the race 6 the wind again disappeared and started spinning round. After 10 minutes of bobbing around the wind began to fill again. As a result, windward mark positions might as well have been chosen by Sir Lancelot and set of balls number 3. The Brothers Grimm and Steve Dunn, sailing in Racing Snake, sealed their own fate though by sailing to the Star’s leeward mark before having to hoist kites to get back to the real windward mark. After arriving at the windward mark first Robson/Johnson made no mistakes to sail on and take the win despite being pushed hard by Gunn/Pilkington. The Chipperfields picked up another consistent third to really take control of the event.

Much to the delight of the fat boys in the fleet the wind had finally started to build by the start of race 7. Up the first beat it had looked as though the Grimms and Steve Dunn had done well on the left hand side picking up a lift into the windward mark. However the wind continued to lift further and it wasn’t long before everybody could lay the mark and the Grimms were again considering a kite launch on the beat. Robson was again first to the windward mark followed by the Chipperfields who quickly passed them to take their 4th win of the week and the event overall. Robson took second to finish third overall with Jackson in third taking second overall.

An excellent event was had by all, despite some strange weather at times. I’m sure that all those that made the effort will be back in 2 years time but for now most are looking forward to Garda next year.