RS800 inlands

James Date reports on what happened on and off the water earlier this month

Gul RS800 Inland Championships - Grafham Water SC - 2/3 October 2004

The RS Inlands at Grafham. Light winds? No chance. As usual the RS classes arrived at Grafham to the now familiar sight of looking downwind from the security of the clubhouse and a cup of tea, watching the white water whipping off the surface. What was it going to look like when you reached the starting area and looked back upwind? 40 800s shared the event with the 700s and the 400s with two race courses to accommodate us all.

Chris Haworth and Stuart Aston launched themselves into the lead of race one and weren’t challenged as most people decided they needed to check the undersides of their boat to make sure they weren’t too dirty after the drive up. Steve Irish and Martin Gotrel recovered well from some leeward mark swimming to take 2nd ahead of Ben McGrane and Jonathan Clegg. James Date and Nick ‘this is my first time in an 800, and it’s blowing 30 knots’ Lowe got round in 4th after some capsize practice and a very steep learning curve.

Race two saw a slightly diminished fleet, after a couple of broken masts and it was just too much for some. The sight of 400s pitch-poling on the other course was a good gauge of how windy it was, I can only imagine what the 700/800 course looked like from where they were. Irish/Gotrel led the race from start to finish with Date/Lowe holding off McGrane/Clegg for 2nd and 3rd. Haworth/Aston came in 4th.

There were only 14 boats left racing by the end of race 3, but the racing at the front was as close as ever, Irish/Gotrel led round the first mark, closely followed by Haworth/Aston and Date/Lowe who’s bow never came back to the surface after the bear away and Lowe experienced his debut trip round the forestay, leaving McGrane/Clegg to cruise off into 3rd. As the wind swung a long way to the right turning the race into a reach-reach affair, making for some exciting attempts to hold the kites down the slightly broader one, Irish/Gotrel held on to win from Haworth/Aston with McGrane/Clegg completing their run of 3rds for the day. Date/Lowe capitalised on watching the leaders being blown into oblivion as the wind swung further right and 2 sailed down the penultimate lap to get back to 4th.

In truly efficient Grafham style we were all off the water, packed up and in the bar by 4 o’clock, a dangerous prospect with talk of more wind the next day, it only took a few beers before such phrases as “we aren’t going sailing tomorrow, let’s get lashed!” were heard around the club. After the mandatory visit to the Wheatsheaf, the fleets returned for disco and cheap booze at the club and were further entertained by Dave Sheils ‘stag do’, he didn’t know it was his stag do, but seemed to have avoided one so thanks to his mates in the 400 fleet, enter WPC 69, baby oil, handcuffs and a banana. Enough said.

Day two dawned and much to the horror of those still drunk from the night before, mentioning no-one in particular (Tim Boon), a gentle 5 knot breeze blew across the pond. Fortunately this increased throughout the day with twin wiring again by the final race. Haworth/Aston got themselves miles in the lead of the first race and stayed there. The battle for 2nd was a close one with Date/Lowe eventually getting the better of Irish/Gotrel by half a boat length. Justin Deal and Sarah Marriot were leading the chasing pack and came in 4th.

Deal/Marriot found the slightly lighter breeze to their liking and showed good pace and pond sailing skills to find themselves in the lead of race 2 of the day but couldn’t hold off an on form Irish/Gotrel who went on to take the bullet. Date/Lowe couldn’t get past Deal/Marriot and settled for 3rd ahead of Alex Davies and Sarah Hughes.

The final race and Irish/Gotrel had it sewn up already but went on to take another bullet anyway, Steve obviously not happy with that 3rd tarnishing his near perfect scorecard from the first race of the day! Haworth/Aston got 2nd in the last to guarantee 2nd overall. Dom Johnson and Jenny Heeley sailed very well to take 3rd in the last race and we will no doubt be seeing more regular appearances at the front from them. Deal/Marriot completed a good day with a 4th that pulled them up to 4th overall.

Thanks go to Grafham Water S.C. for another superbly organised and smoothly run event, I believe the rescue crews did an awesome job and, were probably glad of a bit of a rest on Sunday after Saturday’s conditions. Next stop for all the RS classes is the pursuit race and end of year prize giving at Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy. One pursuit race a day and a big party on Saturday night, it’s a recipe for a top weekend!

	Helm	Crew	Pts	Race1	Race2	Race3	Race4	Race5	Race6
1	Steve Irish	Martin Gotrel	6	2	1	1	3	1	1
2	C Maworth	S Aston	10	1	4	2	1	7	2
3	James Date	Nick Lowe	15	4	2	4	2	3	5
4	Justin Deal	Sarah Marriott	22	6	7	6	4	2	4
5	Ben McGrane	Jonathan Clegg	25	3	3	3	11	5	11
6	Spod Olive	J Norris	32	7	5	5	7	8	9
7	Phil King	Ian Roberson	56	12	11	40	8	18	7
8	Ben Schooling	Tim Hirst	59	5	40	7	19	14	14
9	Malcome Street	Miles Roebuck	71	9	12	11	40	19	20
10	Richard Keeton	Helen Rumbold	73	11	17	13	18	17	15
11	Joe Llewellyn	Caroline Ellis	76	40	16	8	12	15	25
12	Adrian Coatsworth	Julia Jenkins	78	10	14	10	25	22	22
13	Mark Longstaff	Marcus Fleming	82	40	6	40	10	10	16
14	Tim Boon	Rich Evans	90	40	9	9	13	40	19
15	Alex Davies	Sarah Hughes	98	40	40	40	6	4	8
16	James Ross	Gareth Russell	99	40	15	12	23	25	24
17	Dom Johnson	Jenny Heeley	103	40	40	40	9	11	3
18	Ian Martin	Chris Martin	106	40	40	40	14	6	6
19	David Sayle	Fiona Sayle	113	40	40	40	5	16	12
20	Babs Emmans	Roland Emmans	120	13	13	14	40	40	40
21	Andrew Cornuh	Orwin Murray	122	40	40	40	15	9	18
22	Mick Whitmore	Sarah Smith	123	40	40	40	20	13	10
23	David Pike	N Jenkins	131	40	40	40	26	12	13
24	Alastair Shires	Penny Shires	138	40	40	40	16	21	21
25	Matt Critchley	Ryan Crawford	142	14	8	40	40	40	40
26	Derek Buchanan	Elaine Buchannan	146	40	40	40	22	27	17
27	Kate Gillow	Andy Griffith	147	40	40	40	21	23	23
28	Ollie Page	Jonno	157	40	40	40	17	20	40
29	Jon McGuire	Louisa McGuire	160	40	40	40	28	26	26
30	Alex Taylor	Rich Anderton	168	8	40	40	40	40	40
31	David Goudie	Laurence Riches	168	40	40	40	24	24	40
32	Matthew Amiss	Becky Gardner	170	40	10	40	40	40	40