RS200 at Datchet

Competition was close at the RS200 Club Championships this weekend

The weekend of 3 and 4 September saw the running of the first RS200 Club Championship at Datchet Water Sailing Club. Competitors qualified by taking part in series run by their own clubs. Eleven races were run over the weekend, a magnificent achievement on the part of the race officer and his team who managed to keep things moving for both the 200’s and 400’s simultaneously, running races on adjacent windward leeward courses but with a shared start and finish.

Saturday began in a pleasant force two with warm sunshine greeting sailors who had travelled from all around the country. Richard Whitely and Annabel Banham showed the fleet the way round in race one, demonstrating the need to take advantage of the shifts both up and down wind, a feat repeated in race five. Robin Parsons and Jonny Shuster took note and followed up with a win in race two, the first of three wins over the weekend.

Close racing throughout the fleet was demonstrated by the fact that every other race had a different winner. Bullets were recorded by Chris Peckles and Laura Westall, Tim and Wendy Gray, Andi Riley and Julie Marsden, Kevin Gerald and Julie Martin, Gavin and Anna Marshall, Paul and Hazel Williamson and Nick and Claire Haylett.

At the end of six exhausting races on Saturday, things were tight with Peckles and Westall tying on points with Parsons and Shuster. Sunday dawned with even warmer conditions and the wind rose through the day from an initial force two to a gusty force four. Consistency proved to be the major factor in the final results as Parsons and Shuster won out from Peckles and Westall, and Whitely and Banham just pipped Gray and Gray for third place.

This proved to be an excellent event with great hospitality from DWSC and superb prizes supplied by Gul, LDC and the RS Association.