Johnson and Heissig tied

After day one of the RS700 Nationals

The Torbay RS700 national championships started with a poor wind forecast with the race officer announcing that we would head out to sea to see if the wind would appear. Well, race one got underway in 4.2 knots of wind off the committee boat. A couple of OCS boats went by the way side but it was Mike Dencher who made it to the windward mark first followed closely by Colin Dacey then Steve Marshall. A very light windward-leeward course followed with some major place changes and a bit of a melee was made even worse by a change of course indicated at the leeward mark confused by the leaders as a shorten course. So, with the leading pack heading off the wrong way Jon Heissig tried for a come back by reading the flags correctly.

Colin Dacey made the most of the light winds to take the first line honours of the 2009 national championships and a very well done. Mike Dencher followed closely in second with Richard Allen coming in third.

Race 2 started in a couple knots more breeze than race 1. Richard Allen was leading at the top mark followed by Tony Dencher then Mike Dencher. At the bottom mark it was very close with Michael Barnes, Richard Allen, Mike Dencher, Tony Dencher and Ed Reeves all rounding together.

On the second lap it was Michael Barnes in pole around the windward mark with Tony Dencher on his heels. Michael gybed off left and Tony went right. Richard Allen and Ed Reeves were next and also gybed off left. Left paid off with Michael still first at the leeward mark and Ed coming through from fourth to second. Richard maintained his third down the run but then let Tony through just before the finish with a kite wrap on the gybe at leeward mark.

The fleet came off the water grateful to have got a couple of good races in despite the light winds and the even lighter winds forecast. A number of competitors felt that a swim in the harbour together with their boats was required given the hot weather! Royal Torbay Yacht Club served up a great carvery dinner to sustain the fleet through the evening and the next three days of racing.

Day 2

Gently Easterly wind filled in for race 3, and on a slightly starboard biased line, Ed Reeves pulled a near-perfect committee boat start and headed towards the cliffs. He was joined by a small group of Chris Wright, Jon Heissig and Steve Marshall, who all came out at the windward mark ahead of the main fleet who had gone out to sea. On the second beat, Reeves was slowly caught by Heissig, but Marshall came out from the cliffs to take the lead and held on to win from Reeves, followed by Heissig and Wright.

The wind perked up a little for the second race of the day. The race committee, coping admirably in the light and changeable 6 to 7 knot north easterly, set a sensibly sized course in what was to be a dying breeze.

The leading pack started forming from the port side of the first beat, following the 'head for the cliffs' local intelligence. Jon Heissig in 882 found his clear lane and approached the weather mark like a greased weasel. Some 40 yards behind, Tim Johnson in 762 found some pace, leaving others in his wake, except for Mark Nicholson in 831 - probably the heaviest salad-dodger in the fleet 'loving' these light winds. They rounded nose-to-tail with just a few yards to fourth placed Richard Allen (no featherweight himself) in 990, continuing his good form from the Carnac Europeans.

Heissig and Johnson carried their gybing battle down the run, with Johnson’s extraordinary speed downwind catching Heissig as they duelled their way to the first leeward mark. Heissig rounded just ahead of Johnson, with Nicholson and Allen some 50 yards behind. Not far back James Ross in 938 was looming ominously, gaining on the two porkers downhill.

The second beat saw no place changes in the leading half dozen, but with less wind changes took place downhill. Johnson slipped ahead of Heissig, with Ross and Allen timing their gybes well to slip past Nicholson at the bottom mark. By the last windward mark, the leading pair continued their duel with Allen third, Ross fourth. Another lightweight, Nick Miller in 815, crept through to fifth, relegating Nicholson to sixth.

The excitement continues, dear readers. Johnson carried on to win, with Heissig a close second. The race was on for third! Allen thought he had it in the bag, but hit a Torbay hole. Nicholson, with nothing to lose, took a flyer out to sea and maintained good pace. He took out Ross, Miller and Allen but the real surprise was the appearance of Mark Pollington (963) who took his own private shift from 100 yards behind into fifth.

Oh for more of this light breeze excitement tomorrow!

Results:

Pos	Helm	R1	R2	R3	R4	Tot
1	Tim Johnson	4	7	10	1	12
2	Jon Heissig	7	20	3	2	12
3	Richard Allen	3	4	9	7	14
4	Ed Reeves	12	2	2	26	16
5	Nick Miller	5	6	7	6	17
6	Tony Dencher	6	3	11	13	20
7	Mark Pollington	9	16	6	5	20
8	Steve Marshall	13	18	1	14	28
9	Adam Golding	8	10	27	11	29
10	James Ross	24	12	16	4	32
11	Gerard Hughes	11	9	12	12	32
12	Rob Jones	35	21	5	10	36
13	Michael Barnes	21	1	24	15	37
14	Chris Aston	22	8	22	8	38
15	Mark Nicholson	18	25	18	3	39
16	Neil Robinson	19	15	8	16	39
17	Brendan Jenner	10	14	35	17	41
18	Michael Dencher	2	5	35	35	42
19	Chris Wright	20	28	4	18	42
20	Phil Dickinson	25	11	14	20	45
21	Simon Letten	28	13	19	19	51
22	Luke Draper	15	19	17	24	51
23	Colin Dacey	1	35	26	25	52
24	Andrew Tomlins	31	30	13	9	52
25	Peter Shaw	16	22	15	22	53
26	Jeremy Gorbold	17	17	23	27	57
27	Alex Newton Southern	23	35	21	21	65
28	Steve Reeves	27	29	20	23	70
29	Ian Nolan	14	24	35	35	73
30	John Hinsley	30	23	25	29	77
31	Stephen Keating	33	26	28	31	85
32	Graham Blake	26	31	29	32	86
33	Mo Allen	29	27	31	30	86
34	Peter Onions	32	32	30	28	90