Big waves up north

The RS200 fleet went to Filey for their Fat Face Racing Circuit event

For the second year the RS200’s Fat Face Circuit went to the North Yorkshire coast at Filey to be richly entertained by Filey SC. An ever changing forecast promising grim weather; no one was actually too sure when the front with wind and rain would arrive, combined with a windy season seeing too many days at events lost to strong winds already led to many people staying at home.

Saturday could have been very light and variable but the majority of the three races were held in seven to ten knots from the east which slowly clocked to the south east. Keith Escritt and Anne Saul looked to have a very healthy lead but a visit to the finish line a lap too early looked to have been costly but they just held on to win from Matt ad Emma Jenkins and Trudie Fell and Karen Baker. Showboating, a practice run to make sure they could carry the kite to the line, an inability to count or colour blind they thought the shortened course flag was up? Keith was keeping the reason for his error to himself.

National Champion Roger Gilbert and Jane Willian did not indulge in such teasing of the fleet and won race two comfortably from Nick Charles and Juliet Kingsnorth and the Jenkins. Newcomers to 200’s and 200 events, Stephen and Danielle Graham from Burwain, led race three for a long period but Charles and Kingsnorth ground their advantage away to win on the final run from the Grahams and David and Jane Hivey.

Sunday was a very different day; the wind had swung to the north east early in the day and there was already quite a sea running by the time the rescue boats were launched. For the three races the wind was between 17-21 knots with the sea getting progressively bigger as the day went on. This produced for the second year in a row very memorable fun filled rides on the big long waves. With local forecasts predicting the wind to increase when the rain arrived PRO Peter Crook showed great sense and the heart felt support of the fleet in really getting on with the racing with the warning flag being raised almost the moment the previous race had finished. The rain arrived whilst we were packing boats up and the bay was very bleak by the time we towed the boats up the hill.

Roger Gilbert and Jane Willian won the event in the most emphatic possible way winning all three races in the breeze leading at every windward mark. Although they only won overall by a point this does not indicate their dominance on Sunday. Nick Charles and Juliet Kingsnorth scored three seconds but had quite a dogfight in race four and five with fellow Bristol CYC sailors Ian Pickard and Lucy Matthews plus Trudie Fell and Karen Baker who passed them downwind in race six.

With over half the fleet gold sailors the silver and bronze division sailors had to battle hard for places. Andrew and Eve Hartley won the silver division in ninth place overall. JP McCaldin and Jess Copland won the bronze from fellow Dalgety Bay sailors Liz Jamie and Carolyn Priestley.

With many thanks to Filey SC for a great event. It’s off to Stokes Bay for the next Fat Face event and the RS Ball lets see how Roger copes with Solent chop with a hangover.

Results, here .