RS200's and RS700's at Eastbourne

Fat Face Racing Circuit at Eastbourne, really one to remember.

RS700

17 diehard RS700 sailors took no notice of the weather forecast this weekend of gales on the south coast and met at Eastbourne Sovereign sailing club for the fourth Fat Face circuit event of the year.

From the off set Saturday was looking very marginal as gusts were coming through over 30 knots with a very big channel sea. The race officer, after delaying it for an hour, decided to postpone the racing until day two.

The racing was moved forward to 10.30 on Sunday, the plan was to get four races under way. Sunday looked better, however the wind was blowing offshore and we soon realized that the wind was still quite strong as it whistled through the rigging on the beach.

Race one got underway with the wind at about 18-20 knots and freshening. Richard Smith got to the windward mark first, followed closely by Andy Irons and Jerry Wales. Irons took the lead downwind as Smith capsized. Wales was in hot pursuit all the way around with the sea state worsening. Dave Geal held in there and got third.

As race two got under way the wind was freshening and the tide had turned making the sea state very rough. Again Smith showed how fast he can get off the stating block as he led around the top mark, followed by Irons and Wales. Everyone knew how exciting the race was going to be as we turned downwind, now the seas were big. Irons capsized while Wales behind Smith took the lead downwind with Geal in close pursuit. Alex Koukourakis sailed very solidly to get past Geal as he capsized and took second while Geal came back to get third.

The race officer took the view that the sea state was to rough to continue and abandoned the final races. Despite being very fun, exciting, demanding and scary every one thought this was a good idea! Although Eastbourne only ran two races they where epic ones.

RS200

After events in Wales and Scotland it was back to the south coast of England for the RS200 Fat Face Circuit at Eastbourne Sovereign Sailing Club on June 4/5.

Eastbourne sea front looked pleasant in the sunshine on Saturday morning but even the non trained eye could tell there was plenty of breeze out in the race areas. With a strong south westerly sneaking round the corner of Beachy Head the race teams were nervous about sending the fleets out. So it was down to serious crazy golf and shopping for the girls in Brighton.

Sunday, the breeze was still in the southwest but down around 16-18 knots, with a decent size sea still running so the fleet went for some awesome sailing. The breeze slowly built all day with the final race held in 22 knots. When the tide turned after the first race it was against the breeze. With both the breeze and tide increasing the waves became big for the third and fourth races.

Given the testing conditions and the quality of the fleet Craig Burlton and Fiona Clark's performance was very impressive. In race one they passed Lee Sydenham and Anne Vaudrey downwind to score a very close win. In race two they were again second for a long period but took advantage of a kite hoist problem in Geoff Carveth and Loopy Lucy Matthews boat to win. A second in race three was a short term blip; after a bad start in race four a drive for the starboard side of the first beat produced handsome dividends and another race win. In their only event before the Nationals Burlton and Clark showed in such a strong fleet that they will be very serious contenders for the title.

Eastbourne Sovereign SC had done a great job in organising the event and were such friendly hosts. The race teams and rescue crews impressed everyone and the beach team making launching and recovery such an easy task were fantastic.

Results

RS700

1-Jerry Wales-Queen Mary SC
2-Alez Koukourakis-Eastbourne Sovereign SC
3-Dave Geal-Eastbourne Sovereign SC

RS200

1-Craig Burltan, Fiona Clark-RYA
2-Geoff Carneth, Luppie Lucy-Littleton SC
3-Lee Sydenham, Anne Vaudry-Stokes Bay SC